Wild Rice Soup (Minnesota, USA)

Wild Rice Soup (Minnesota, USA)

Wild Rice Soup is a warm and creamy dish featuring the official state grain of Minnesota. This comforting soup with wild rice, chicken, cream, carrots and celery is sure to warm you up on even the coldest winter nights.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 55 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Soup

Cuisine American, Minnesotan

Servings 8 Bowls

Equipment

• Strainer
• Normal Kitchen Utensils

Ingredients

  

• 1 C Uncooked Wild Rice
• 1 Lb Chicken, Cooked ~2 C Diced
• 3 C Low or No Sodium Chicken Broth/Stock Vegetable Also Works
• 1 C Heavy Cream
• 2 Stalks Celery ~1 C Chopped
• 2 Large Carrots ~1 C Chopped
• 1 Medium White or Yellow Onion
• 4 Cloves Garlic Minced; Or 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 Tbsp Butter
• 1/2 tsp Dried Thyme
• 1 Bay Leaf
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Instructions

 

• Rinse the wild rice under hot water for 30 seconds and then boil per the package directions. If directions are not provided, boil 3 C water and drop in the rice with a heavy pinch of salt. Cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook 45 minutes, until the rice is softened. Drain any additional liquid after cooking.
  1 C Uncooked Wild Rice
• While the rice cooks, chop the carrots, celery, onion and garlic.
  2 Stalks Celery, 2 Large Carrots, 1 Medium White or Yellow Onion, 4 Cloves Garlic
• Dice the chicken separately.
• Melt the butter in a large pot (separate from the rice) over medium-high heat.
  2 Tbsp Butter
• Add the celery, carrots, onion and a heavy pinch of salt to the butter and sauté until the onions are translucent. About 5 minutes.
  Salt and Pepper to Taste
• Add the garlic, thyme and bay leaf. Sauté another minute.
  1/2 tsp Dried Thyme, 1 Bay Leaf
• Add the broth/stock and diced chicken. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for at least 20 minutes, or until the rice has finished cooking (in its separate pot).
  3 C Low or No Sodium Chicken Broth/Stock, 1 Lb Chicken, Cooked
• When the rice has finished cooking, drain any additional liquid and add the rice to the soup along with the cream.
  1 C Heavy Cream
• Cook covered another 5-10 minutes to help the flavors meld with the rice.
• Remove the bay leaf, season with salt and pepper to taste (I usually don't add pepper) and serve right away. This soup is also great heated back up as leftovers. Add a little more water if the rice ends up soaking up too much.

Notes

Wild Rice Soup is extremely customizable. I have seen recipes that use evaporated milk instead of cream, recipes with mushrooms, and a large number of recipes with slivered almonds. Some include chicken while others don’t. 

So make it your own. I think as long as it is creamy and includes wild rice (obviously), carrot, onion and celery, you can’t go wrong. 

Lazy tip: You can buy a cooked rotisserie chicken and simply pull apart 2 C of the chicken pieces. Rotisserie chicken is great when soups need cooked chicken, and you can use the bones to make stock. 

Keyword Carrots, Celery, Cream, Minnesota, Onion, Rice, Soup, Wild

Did you know Manoomin (the Ojibwe name for Wild Rice) is the only grain indigenous to North America? It grows in the shallow waters of the thousands of lakes dotting the Minnesota landscape and the rest of the Great Lakes region. To learn more about wild rice and other indigenous American foods, try here and here.