Creamy Cauliflower Wild Rice Soup
This fan-favourite, creamy vegan cauliflower wild rice soup is packed with nutrition, easy to make and perfect for warming up on a cold day.
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.
Highlights
- Quick and easy to make!
- Vegan, gluten-free, nut-free and soy-free.
- High in protein and fiber, low in fat.
- 5-star reviewed so you can cook with confidence.
Ingredient Notes
This list is not complete. 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.
I like to serve the soup with more fresh lemon and thinly sliced scallions.
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.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
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Creamy Cauliflower Wild Rice Soup
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This creamy, vegan wild rice soup is the ultimate comfort food. The flavours are wonderful, it’s full of nutrition and makes the perfect way to warm up on on a cold day.
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped celery (150 g)
- 1 medium white onion, diced (approx. 1 1/2 cups, 215 g)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ground thyme
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 cups peeled and diced carrots (300 g)
- 4 heaping cups or 1 small head of cauliflower, chopped into small florets (450 g)
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (30 g)
- 1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice (250 g)
- 1 tsp each sea salt and black pepper, or more to taste
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Cook Rice: Cook the wild rice according to package instructions. While it’s cooking, proceed with making the soup.
- Saute Vegetables: Add the onion, garlic and celery a large soup pot with 2 tablespoons of water and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until starting to soften, stirring often (alternatively, you can saute the veggies in 1 tbsp of olive oil). If the pot starts to dry out at any time, add another tablespoon of water.
- Add Herbs: Add the thyme and oregano, stir to combine and cook for another 2 minutes until fragrant, stirring frequently.
- Simmer Soup: Add the cauliflower, carrot and all of the vegetable stock and simmer over medium-low heat until the carrots and cauliflower are tender. This should take approximately 20 minutes.
- Add Nutritional Yeast: Stir in the nutritional yeast.
- Blend Soup: Scoop half of the soup into a blender. Make sure you leave a crack in the lid to let the steam escape. Start blending on low then increase to high and blend until smooth and creamy. Once it’s blended, pour it back into the soup pot with the rest of the soup. Alternatively, use an immersion blender directly in the pot to blend about half of the soup.
- Add Rice: Stir in the cooked wild rice.
- Add Lemon: Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper, if needed.
- Serve: Serve right away with chopped fresh chives or green onion and lemon wedges.
Notes
Storing: Let cool then store in a sealed container for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge if frozen. Reheat stovetop or in the microwave until heated to your preference.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6th of recipe (350 g)
- Calories: 125
- Fat: 0.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fiber: 6 g
- Protein: 8 g
Originally published on February 19, 2018. Updated with new photos and text on November 17, 2020.
All I can say is WOW!!! This soup is absolutely. I prepared this a few days ago and it was so easy. Every bite was so good and satisfying. This recipe will forever be in my winter recipe rotation ๐๐๐ผ๐ฏ๐
So glad you enjoyed it, Ayanna! Thanks for the review and rating.
“The best soup….ever” said my husband as he served himself another bowl. And at the age of 81 he has eaten many home made soups! We eat a mainly plant based diet but are not vegetarians so I did use a homemade chicken stock. I look forward to making many more of your recipes. Thanks Deryn.
This looks amazing. Iโm considering trying it in an instant pot (sautรฉ herbs, throw everything else in and cooking for 20 min). Have you tried that at all?ย
Hi, I think it depends if you plan to add uncooked wild rice to the IP with the rest of the soup or not. You’d need a longer cooking time and more liquid, if so. I would add everything except the wild rice to the IP, use a cooking time of 8 minutes or so, then blend and add then stir cooked wild rice in once it’s cooked. I haven’t tested it either way though, so I can’t guarantee it! Let me know if you do.
This soup is definitely a winner!! Even hubby who’s not a fan of nutritional yeast had seconds! So easy to prepare and absolutely delicious, not to mention super healthful! Will definitely add it to my frequent-and-favorite-file. Thank you, Deryn-we love your recipes!
Aw, so happy to hear that Robin! Thanks for the note! So glad you guys enjoyed it.
Can the Nutritional Yeast be left out or will it affect the recipe? I don’t like cheese so the nutritional yeast is out for me.
Nutritional yeast is quite a big part of this recipe. I haven’t tried it without it so I’m not sure what it would be like without it. You might like my cauliflower kale soup or cauliflower potato soup as they don’t contain nutritional yeast. You can find them both in the soup section!
Hi Deryn,
Don’t hate me but I can not tolerate the flavor of Noot. I’ve been told that some are not as overwhelming as others. I am willing to give it a go. Can you recommend one that you like? Not Bobs and not Trader Joes.
Thanks!
I buy bulk, Bobs or Hoosier Farms but honestly I haven’t noticed much difference between brands. If you don’t like it, no need to force it!
SO MUCH FLAVOR! I added lots of extra lemon juice because it complimented the flavor so nicely. Super healthy!
I love lemon in this soup too! So much flavour indeed!
How much in measuring cups is a serving?
Amazing! I didn’t have a ev wild rice so I used jasmine. Also, doubled the garlic and used Italian seasoning because I didn’t have oregano and thyme separately. This is a keeper. My 3 year old also loved it and ate every drop. ? Thank you!!!!
That’s awesome! So happy you and your little one enjoyed it!
Soooo yummy!!!