I may have had wild rice three times before moving to northeastern Minnesota.

Wild rice is native to where I live in Minnesota — so it’s EVERYWHERE.

You can even buy wild rice in gas stations!

We quickly learned that wild rice is a thing up here, and if we were going to live up here, we had to figure out how to cook it.

Specifically creamy wild rice soup.

So what is wild rice?

According to Minnesota Wild Rice:

This highly nutritious grain is not actually rice, but an annual water-grass seed, “zizania aquatica”. Naturally abundant in the cold rivers and lakes of Minnesota and Canada, wild rice was the staple in the diet of the Chippewa and Sioux Indians, native to this region.

Even today, the wild rice grown on Minnesota state waters is regulated and must be harvested in the traditional indian way. That means one must first purchase a license, then harvest wild rice during state regulated seasons. The rice must be harvested from a canoe, utilizing only a pole for power and two rice beater sticks as flails to knock the mature seeds into the bottom of the boat (source).

In 1994, a group of researchers at the University of Minnesota found that wild rice is extremely high in antioxidants.

Then in 2009, researchers at the University of Manitoba analyzed 11 different samples of wild rice and found that it was 30 times higher in antioxidants than white rice (source)! Antioxidants fight diseases including cancer and autoimmune disease.

Other benefits of wild rice:

• a large amount of dietary fiber
• high levels of Vitamin C
• significant levels of Vitamin B6 (folate)
• high in protein — contains double the protein of brown rice!

Are you ready for an out-of-this-world creamy wild rice soup recipe?

Here’s what you need:

• 1/4 cup fat (pasture butter, lard, tallow, coconut oil, avocado oil)
• 3 medium-sized yellow onions, diced
• 7-8 medium-sized carrots, diced
• 5-6 stalks celery, diced
• 8-10 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 4 cups pre-cooked wild rice (here’s how to cook it in the Instant Pot!)
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon salt (you’ll probably want to add more later)
• 1 tablespoon rubbed sage or freshly chopped sage
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2-3 cups shredded chicken, optional
• 1/4 cup fat (pasture butter, lard, tallow, coconut oil, avocado oil)
• 1/4 cup arrowroot powder
• 2 cups milk (I use raw milk.)
• 1 cup heavy cream

Here’s how to do it:

Begin by cooking the wild rice, if you haven’t already. I use my InstantPot for this and cook it in 40 minutes — here’s how!

Melt fat in a large stock pot or Dutch oven. This recipe almost fills my 7-quart cast iron Dutch oven — it makes A LOT!

Add the diced onions, carrots, and celery. (Want to impress your friends? This mixture is called a mirepoix — pronounced “meer-pwah”.) Saute until softened, about 10-12 minutes.

Add the crushed garlic, pre-cooked wild rice, and chicken broth. Stir together.

Add salt, dried, rubbed sage (or freshly chopped sage), dried thyme, and ground black pepper.

Stir to combine, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes.

Then, if you want to add chicken, add it now. I almost always don’t add chicken because this soup is very filling and hearty without it. But if you have it already cooked and you want to stretch this HUGE pot of soup even further, add some. Don’t feel like you need to cook chicken just for this though — I promise it’s not lacking without chicken!

In a separate skillet, melt the other 1/4 cup fat. Sprinkle in arrowroot powder and whisk to combine. Let the arrowroot cook for a minute, until fragrant.

Then whisk in the milk, and keep whisking until it begins to thicken. (This is called a roux — pronounced “roo”. Throw this term around with the above mirepoix when friends are around, and they’ll consider you a culinary genius.)

Add the roux to the soup and stir while the soup thickens.

Then for good measure, stir in the cup of heavy cream. I use raw cream and oh.my.lawd.

This ginormous pot of soup will serve at least 6 to 8 people, so it’s perfect for company or if you  just like having leftovers for days like I do.

In northeastern Minnesota, you’d eat this soup with a slice of cranberry-wild rice bread — because cranberries are also native to this region. 🙂 But we eat it all by itself because it’s hearty and super filling.

Do you like wild rice soup? Have you ever made anything with wild rice?