Creamy Cauliflower Wild Rice Soup

This incredible cauliflower rice soup has a nutty, cheesy flavour and luxuriously creamy texture with tender bites of cauliflower, carrot and wild rice.

You’ll need minimal prep time and about 45 minutes of total cooking time to make it, though it’s faster if you cook the rice in advance.

Enjoy this cozy soup year-round but especially during the fall and winter months. It’s the perfect way to warm up on a cold day and is extra delicious served with a nice piece of bread for dipping.

Ingredient Notes

Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.

• Celery: You’ll need roughly 1 cup of chopped celery or 2-3 stalks. The amount doesn’t have to be exact.
• Onion: You can use white or yellow onion.
• Garlic: Use 3 cloves of garlic or substitute 1 tsp garlic powder.
• Herbs: The recipe calls for dried thyme and oregano. Other herbs that would work well are rosemary and basil, or you could use Italian seasoning.
• Carrot: You’ll need roughly 2 cups of chopped carrots. I would recommend peeling them for this recipe.
• Cauliflower: Use one small head of cauliflower or half a large head. It should be about 4 heaping cups of florets.
• Stock: You can use any homemade or store-bought vegetable stock or bouillon.
• Nutritional Yeast: This is what makes the recipe “cheesy”. Nutritional yeast is easy to find in well-stocked grocery stores, health food stores or online. If you’re unsure what it is, you can read more about nutritional yeast here.
• Wild Rice: Any wild rice or wild rice blend works. It’s cooked separately from the soup so varied cooking times don’t matter. You could also use brown rice or another grain like barley.

Step-by-Step with Photos

Step 1: Cook Wild Rice

Start cooking your wild rice according to the package instructions. Most varieties take about 45 minutes to cook.

Step 2: Saute Veggies

When you’re ready to start the soup, heat 2 tsp oil in a dutch oven or large soup pot then add the onion, garlic adn celery. If you’re not using oil, add the veggies with 1-2 tbsp water and heat.

Cook them for 5-6 minutes over medium heat until they’re softened then stir in the thyme and oregano and cook for another couple of minutes.

Step 3: Simmer Soup

Add the cauliflower, carrot and stock and lightly simmer the soup for about 20 minutes until the carrots and cauliflower are nice and tender. Once the veggies are cooked through, stir in the nutritional yeast.

Step 4: Blend Soup

Carefully scoop about half of the soup into a blender. Start blending the soup on low then slowly increase to high speed for 10-20 seconds until the soup is smooth and creamy. Make sure you allow the step to escape while you’re blending.

Pour the blended portion back into the pot with the remaining soup.

Quick Tip: You can use an immersion blender directly in the pot if you don’t have a blender. With either method, blend as much or as little of the soup as you like!

Step 5: Add Wild Rice

Finally, stir in the cooked wild rice. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice into the soup, taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed. That’s it! It’s ready to enjoy.

Variations

• Potato: Potatoes work well in place of, or in addition to cauliflower for a variation on this recipe. Use an equal amount of peeled, cubed Yukon gold potatoes in place of cauliflower or do half cauliflower and half potato.
• Beans: You can substitute up to half of the cauliflower or wild rice for chickpeas or white beans. Stir the beans in when you add the wild rice.

Recipe Notes

• Thickness: The amount of stock can be reduced or increased to adjust the consistency. If you like your soup very thick, reduce the broth to 4 cups. You can always add more at the end if it’s too thick.
• Heat: For spicy soup, add up to 1 tsp of cayenne pepper or chili flakes when you add the herbs or add 1 jalapeno or serrano pepper with the veggies at the beginning.
• Rice: Since you cook the rice separately and stir it in at the end, any variety of rice or any grain works. If you don’t have wild rice on hand, try brown rice, long-grain white rice, a wild and brown rice blend, bulgur, farro or even quinoa.
• Extra wild rice? Make this wild rice salad, mushroom wild rice or broccoli wild rice salad.

Storing

• Fridge: Let cool then store in a sealed container for up to 5 days.
• Freezer: Let cool then store in a freezer-safe container for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
• Reheating: Reheat on the stovetop in a pot or in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until heated through.