Vegan Chickpea Wild Rice Soup

For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in Minnesota. My absolute favorite food as a kid was creamy chicken wild rice soup. When we’d go out to restaurants, that’s what I would get 100% of the time.

Here’s the deal, despite my love of the taste, I always felt like absolute trash after eating it. It all made sense as an adult when I discovered just how bad my gluten and dairy intolerance is.

For years I tried to recreate the dish to make a gluten-free and vegan version, but nothing was as good as I remembered and my attempts just fell short.

Last spring (remember, spring is usually still below freezing in Minnesota) I didn’t have anything planned for dinner. I grabbed a handful of things from the pantry and through them together. Imagine my surprise when the end result brought me immediately back to my childhood!

The good news is, I had the forethought to write down what I was doing as I went. With fall starting next week, I figured it was a great time to share the recipe with you. I’ll tell you how I did it, but make sure to read the notes at the end for swaps and alternatives.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion - chopped

• 1-2 tsp garlic (depending on your preference)

• 1 TBS butter (dairy free, I use Country Crock plant based butter sticks)

• 1 tsp thyme

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp pepper

• 5 cups water

• 3/4 cup wild rice or rice blend

• 1 cup canned coconut milk

• 1 package steam in the bag Brussel sprouts

• 1 package steam in the bag diced sweet potatoes

• 1 can chickpeas - drained

Directions

Start by heating your pan to medium high heat and melting down the butter. Once it’s hot, add in the onion and garlic.

Go ahead and saute these veggies for 3-5 minutes. You’re looking for them to be soft, but they don’t need to browned. We’re going to have a decent simmer time so there’s plenty opportunity for them to cook down more.

Next up, toss in all your spices. Stir it up and cook another 1-2 minutes. These are very fragrant and the aromatics should really come through in this step.

Then you’re going to add your water and rice. I like to use Rice Select Royal Blend which is a blend of wild, red, brown and white rice. Feel free to use another option, but pay attention to the cooking times as they can vary.

Bring that water to a nice boil and then cover it up. The soup is going to simmer for 35 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, toss the steam in the bag veggies into the microwave. When they are done, I like to slice the Brussel sprouts in half so they are a better bite size.

When there’s 5-10 minutes left for the soup, add in the veggies, chickpeas, and coconut cream. Give it a good stir and let everything continue to simmer.

And that’s all there is to it!

Notes:

This soup is rich, creamy, and hearty. If you are unable to do coconut, you can substitute the milk of your choice, but know it may not be quite as thick and creamy.

The chickpeas give a great texture. Sometimes wild rice soup has almond slivers in it and the chickpeas reminded me of that from a mouth feel perspective. I also included them for the protein.

Traditionally, this soup would have carrots and celery in it. Kiddo has a carrot allergy, so the sweet potato was an easy swap for that. You could easily swap it to carrots and the recipe will still be great. Same thing with the celery and Brussels. I’m just not a fan of celery or that you have to buy a huge bundle to just use a few pieces. You’re welcome to change out the veggies and it will still be delicious.

Another note on the veg, you can obviously use fresh, you’ll just want to add it a lot sooner. I make this recipe both ways, but prefer the frozen veggies usually because I almost always have them on hand and it makes this dish something I can throw together any time without having to make a special trip to the store when I’m in the mood for it.

I’d love to hear how this turns out for you, so if you give it a try, tag me on social media (@theallergyfriendlyvegan) or leave a comment down below.