Benefits of Wild Rice + Creamy Wild Rice Soup
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?

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I like your recipes but can’t find any link to print them!
Thank you, Barbara! I have not yet found a recipe plugin that I love enough to install on my site. Many recipe cards are quite buggy and can even crash a site. I know a lot of bloggers have them, and that’s definitely something I’m working toward!
Would you consider cooking this in the Instant Pot? Maybe not cook rice as long?
You could do this in the IP using the Saute feature, I’m sure! I don’t know about pressure cooking it; I’ll have to experiment with that!
I made this soup tonight for supper…….1.) It is fantastic!!! The only thing I will do different is cut the carrots a little smaller next time. (They took longer to soften.) 2.) This is definitely a BIG pot of soup, which is ok because we will have some for lunch after church tomorrow! 3.) Our son lives in St. Paul, MN and once when we were visiting and was up in Ely we were told that only the native Indians in the state can harvest the rice!
Dona, Yay for loving this soup! As for harvesting the wild rice: my understanding is that the truly wild rice must be hand-harvested according to Native American practices, in a canoe, with a permit, etc. I don’t know all the rules. We have friends up here who harvest each year, and they are not Native American. This is truly a fascinating food!
The season usually starts the end of August in Central Minnesota. In the Arrowhead it is later in September. We didn’t go ricing last year so will likely go this coming fall since our supply will be running low by then. Of course, the Melby’s are always well-supplied so we never actually run out, but there is something special about gathering it yourself. It feeds you in more ways than one!
You need to learn how to harvest it, too!
I would love to learn too Lise Abazs!!!
I would love to!!!
We like chicken wild rice soup that is clear broth as well. Basically chicken noodle soup with wild rice instead of noodles.
Yeah, that’s good too, but you know what I always say? A pint of heavy cream is the difference between good and awesome. 🙂 LOL
Lol!!!!