Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup
with shredded kale and apple salad
Wild rice has a nutty flavor and slightly chewy texture that is great in a classic vegetarian soup. Serve it with a tart shredded kale salad with apples and parmesan cheese.
Smarts: Wild rice can take 45 minutes or more to cook, so prepare it ahead and add it to the soup at the end (or sub a faster cooking grain like farro).
Ingredients
- Carrots - 1/4 lb, chopped
- Leeks - 2, white parts chopped
- Shallots - 2 cloves, diced
- Mushrooms, fresh shiitakes (sub any brown variety) - 8 oz, chopped
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Vinegar, apple cider - 1/2 tsp
- Stock, any type - 4 cups
- Cooked wild rice (ingredients listed separately) - ~2 cups
- Sour cream (sub plain yogurt) - 1/4 cup
- Rice, wild and uncooked (sub brown rice or farro) - 1 1/2 cups
- Water - 8 cups
- Salt - 1/2 tsp
- Cheese, parmesan (opt) - 1/4 cup, grated
- Kale, any type - 1 bunch, stems removed, leaves finely chopped
- Apples, any type - 1, matchsticks
- Oil, olive - 3 Tbsp
- Vinegar, balsamic - 2 tsp
- Honey - 1 tsp
- Almonds, sliced - 1/4 cup
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Rice - This makes enough rice for two nights. (If using a sub, cook according to package directions.) Rinse until clear. Combine rice, water and salt in a a saucepan or Dutch oven. Cover with lid and bring to a boil. Once water boils, stir, lower heat to a low-medium, and cover. Check at ~45 min. Rice is done when it is tender and some of the grains have started to burst open. If it's not done, continue simmering for up to an additional 15 minutes. Use a strainer to drain any extra liquid off the cooked rice. Divide rice in half to use in both Monday and Wednesday’s meals. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Carrots / Leeks / Shallots / Cheese - Prep as directed. (Can be done up to 4 days ahead)
- Kale - Remove leaves from stems. Slice leaves into thin strips. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)
- Mushrooms - Remove and discard tough stems and chop mushrooms. (Can be done 1 day ahead)
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Make
- Heat a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Add oil and then leeks and carrots to heated oil. Add a pinch of salt. Saute until leeks are golden brown and carrots are tender, ~6 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add apple cider vinegar and shallots and saute until shallots are tender, ~1 minute more.
- Add stock and cooked rice (remember to reserve half the rice for Wednesday) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer soup for 5 minutes to allow the flavors to come together.
- While soup simmers, slice apples into matchsticks. Whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey. Toss with kale, parmesan, apples and almonds. Season with a bit of salt and pepper.
- Taste soup and add additional seasoning, if needed. Ladle soup into bowls and top with sour cream.
- Serve soup with salad on the side and enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
61 reviews
I am from Minnesota and consider myself an expert on wild rice soup. I followed this recipe and was very impressed. The flavor was great and really brought out the flavor of this tasty and nutritious grain. Really loved the soup with the salad--a great match for sure.
Really enjoyed this. The soup was surprisingly good (don't know why I chose to make this when I'm usually not into mushrooms)...it was a little under-seasoned, but that was a quick fix. I loved the salad. I will 100% make the salad again. Soon.
Loved that this soup was hearty without any meat. However, even with using beef stock I thought it lacked some flavor. After the first bite added some TJ's 21 seasoning salute. This helped with the flavor a lot. Would like to see this recipe again, but reworked for more flavor. Also, my mushrooms turned out a little rubbery, maybe I should have sauteed longer?
We added rotisserie chicken to it and it was amazing! We also added more mushrooms, added the other half of the rice and more stock.
Lemon juice and garlic powder helped a ton. We used chicory instead of kale and it was perfect. Will definitely make this again.