Wild Rice Soup — the cozy autumn favorite: creamy, hearty, one pot. Chewy wild rice, browned mushrooms, sweet potato, carrots and kale in a gently spiced cream broth, finished with fresh thyme, exactly as the pin serves it. (The pin shows the finished bowl without a printed ingredient list, so this is the complete standard recipe for exactly the soup in the photo.) Every step below comes with its own photo.
Creamy · Hearty · One Pot
Vegetarian
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 carrots, sliced into rounds
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed (about 2 cups)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning (or extra paprika plus a pinch of celery salt)
- 1 cup wild rice blend, rinsed
- 6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 4-5 fresh thyme sprigs (plus more, to serve)
- 2 cups chopped kale, stems removed
- 1 cup heavy cream (or full-fat coconut milk)
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
Step by Step
Sauté the Vegetables
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat and sauté the onion, carrots and mushrooms for 7-9 minutes, until the onion is soft and the mushrooms have given up their liquid and started to brown in earnest — the big, deeply bronzed slices in the pin’s photo are made right here, not later. Do not rush this with a crowded, steaming pan: cook in the largest pot you have and let the mushrooms sit undisturbed for a minute at a time. This layer of browning is the soup’s backbone; a creamy broth alone is bland, but a creamy broth built on browned mushrooms has depth.
Add Garlic, Sweet Potato & Spices
Stir in the garlic, sweet potato cubes, smoked paprika and Old Bay and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and the spices have bloomed into a rusty coating on the vegetables. Old Bay is the cozy original’s quiet signature — a warm celery-mustard-paprika blend that tastes like autumn without announcing itself — but smoked paprika plus a pinch of celery salt gets you to the same neighborhood. Keep the sweet potato cubes around 3/4 inch: smaller and they dissolve into the broth (which thickens it, honestly not a crime), bigger and they are still firm when the rice is done.
Add the Rice & Broth
Pour in the rinsed wild rice blend and the broth, add the bay leaf and thyme sprigs, and bring everything to a boil. Rinsing the rice matters: the dusty starch on the grains can cloud the broth and make the first bowl taste faintly gritty. A ‘wild rice blend’ — wild rice mixed with brown and white rice, like the little bowl in the pin’s corner — cooks evenly in about 45 minutes; pure wild rice needs closer to 55-60. Check which one you bought before you set the timer.
Simmer Until the Rice Pops
Reduce to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the wild rice grains have split open and curled to show their pale insides — ‘popped’ is the word, and it is unmistakable once you see it — and the sweet potato is completely tender. Taste a few grains rather than trusting the clock: wild rice is done when it is chewy-tender, with a pleasant bite, never crunchy and never blown out into mush. Fish out the bay leaf and the thyme stems (the leaves will have fallen into the soup, which is exactly what you wanted).
Stir in the Kale & Cream
Stir in the chopped kale and simmer for 2-3 minutes, just until it wilts and turns the vivid green it holds in the photo — kale added earlier would go army-drab and tired. Then pour in the cream, stir, and warm through for a minute without boiling. The broth turns the soft, opaque beige of the pin: rich but still brothy, coating a spoon rather than sitting on it. Season properly now — salt, plenty of black pepper — because cream mutes seasoning and the soup will taste flatter than the pre-cream version until you adjust.
Serve Cozy
Ladle into warm bowls and finish each with a fresh thyme sprig, exactly like the pin — it perfumes the bowl as you eat, which is half the cozy. Serve with thick slices of crusty or sourdough bread for dragging through the creamy broth. This is a full meal in a bowl: chewy wild rice, sweet potato, mushrooms and kale in a spiced cream broth, no meat in sight and nobody missing it. Leftovers thicken into something almost stew-like by tomorrow, which many people quietly consider the best version.
Pro Tips
- Brown the mushrooms like you mean it — they are the soup’s only ‘meaty’ element. Pale, steamed mushrooms make a pale soup, in flavor as much as looks.
- Blend vs pure wild rice — a blend (like the pin’s little bowl) cooks in ~45 minutes and gives varied texture; pure wild rice takes ~55-60 and tastes nuttier. Both work; just time them differently.
- Kale goes in last — 2-3 minutes keeps it vivid green and tender-crisp, the way it looks in the photo. Spinach can swap in at 1 minute.
- Cream last, never boiled — add it off the boil and just warm through; boiling a finished cream soup can split it.
- Season twice — once when the broth goes in, and again after the cream, which always mutes the salt more than you expect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make it in an Instant Pot or slow cooker?
Yes. Instant Pot: sauté as written, then cook on High Pressure for 25 minutes with a natural release of 10 minutes; stir in the kale and cream at the end. Slow cooker: everything except the kale and cream on Low for 6-7 hours (or High for 3-4), then finish as written. The stovetop sauté still matters for the mushrooms in both.
Can I make it dairy-free or vegan?
Easily — this soup is famous in its vegan form. Use olive oil instead of butter, vegetable broth, and swap the cream for a 14 oz can of full-fat coconut milk, whose faint sweetness flatters the sweet potato. It is every bit as creamy as the photo.
Can I add chicken?
Yes — this is the base of the classic creamy chicken and wild rice soup. Add 2 cups of shredded cooked chicken (rotisserie is perfect) with the kale, or simmer two chicken breasts in the broth for the last 25 minutes of the rice cooking and shred them in.
How do leftovers keep? Can I freeze it?
The soup keeps 4 days in the fridge and thickens as the rice drinks the broth — stir in a splash of broth or water when reheating. It freezes well for up to 3 months if you freeze it BEFORE adding the cream and kale; add those fresh when you reheat and it tastes just-made.
What if I can’t find Old Bay?
Use 1 tsp smoked paprika plus a pinch each of celery salt, mustard powder and black pepper. It will not be identical, but it lands in the same warm, savory place that makes this soup taste like autumn.