Creamy Vegan Mushroom Soup with wild rice is a thick, creamy, cleaner version of classic mushroom soup. Made dairy-free and gluten-free, this soup is healthful yet hearty and filling!
If you’re into thick, creamy, hearty soups, you’ll absolutely adore this wild rice vegan mushroom soup. It’s silky smooth with some texture from the rice and mushrooms and has the loveliest creamy, herby flavor.
This recipe was adapted from my own cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls https://amzn.to/2qfnW9G, but I just had to share it with you so you could enjoy it during soup season (and beyond…when is it not soup season? 😉 ), and/or employ it as a side dish during the holidays for entertaining guests.
Let’s dive deep into this bowl of bliss!
How to Make Creamy Mushroom Soup Without Dairy:
How do we make this soup so thick and creamy without heavy cream, half & half, and/or butter and flour? Simple!: cashews. Simply place raw cashews in a bowl, cover them with water and allow them to soak for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours. In this sense, you can begin recipe prep the night before you make the actual soup by soaking the cashews ahead of time.
If you’re under a time crunch, you can soak the cashews in boiling water for 15 minutes. The longer the cashews soak, however, the creamier the consistency will be.
How to Make Vegan Mushroom Soup:
After soaking the raw cashews, strain the water and set cashews aside until ready to use.
Heat the avocado oil in a Dutch oven or large stock pot over medium-high. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onion begins turning brown, about 8 minutes.
Add the carrot, garlic, and mushrooms, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms begin to deepen in color, about 5 minutes.
Add the rice, vegetable broth, sea salt, oregano, and nutritional yeast. Cover and bring to a full boil.
While the soup is coming to a boil, blend the coconut milk and cashews together in a small blender until completely smooth. Stir this mixture into the pot, replace the cover, and reduce heat to medium-low to cook at a simmer. Continue cooking until soup has thickened and rice is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Taste soup for flavor and add more sea salt, and/or a squeeze of lemon according to taste.
Garnish with fresh parsley and serve. Note: You can also sauté more mushrooms until they are golden-brown and crispy and serve them on top of the soup!
Recipe Adaptations:
- You can easily infuse the soup with protein by using beef or chicken bone broth in place of vegetable broth, and/or add 1 large chopped chicken breast. To do so, simply add the chicken 20 minutes before the soup is finished cooking.
- If you are intolerant to cashews, you can use 1 small boiled yukon potato instead of cashews. Simply follow the same instructions in the recipe card, replacing the soaked cashews with a cooked potato.
- Similarly to the above, if you are grain free, you can add 1 mashed Yukon potato to make the soup thick as opposed to using rice.
- Replace the rice with quinoa, barley or lentils (note: barley and lentils are not technically paleo) if you tolerate them.
- I love this soup with beef bone broth. Replace type of broth to heart’s desire if you aren’t going for a vegan meal.
Advance Prep:
If you like making recipes in parts, here are a few options for preparing this soup in advance:
- Soak the cashews, and/or blend the cashews and coconut milk up to 1 day in advance.
- The bulk of this recipe should be made at the same time for best results, so no advance prep is necessary.
- This soup saves very well in a sealed container for up to 5 days. Make whole recipe up to 5 days in advance.
More Vegan Soup Recipes:
- Vegan Butternut Squash Bisque
- Chunky Tomato Soup
- Roasted Pecan Butternut Squash Soup
- Thai Spiced Pumpkin Soup
- Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Sluuuurp!!
Creamy Vegan Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked
- 1 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 large carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 pound baby portobello mushrooms
- 1 cup wild rice
- 6 cups vegetable broth see note
- 1 tsp sea salt to taste
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice
Instructions
- Place cashews in a bowl and cover with water. Soak at least 1 hour, up to 8 hours. Strain and set aside until ready to use.
- Heat the avocado oil in a Dutch oven or large stock pot over medium-high. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onion begins turning brown, about 8 minutes.
- Add the carrot, garlic, and mushrooms, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms begin to deepen in color, about 5 minutes.
- Add the rice, vegetable broth, sea salt, oregano, and nutritional yeast. Cover and bring to a full boil.
- While the soup is coming to a boil, blend the coconut milk and cashews together in a small blender. Stir this mixture into the pot, replace the cover, and reduce heat to medium-low to cook at a simmer. Continue cooking until soup has thickened and rice is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Taste soup for flavor and add more sea salt according to taste.
- Scoop soup into bowls and serve!
This soup is even better than the traditional Creamy Wild Rice Soup I’ve made before starting with a plant based diet.
So thrilled you like it! It’s one of my favorites!
This is a fabulous soup. I made it as suggested and just enjoyed eating three bowls. Very flavorful. The rice adds some heartiness to it and there are enough mushrooms to make them dominate – not just sit on the side.
Excellent. I would serve this in a restaurant, if I owned one!
I’m so thrilled you like it, Keith!! Thanks so much for the sweet note 😀 xoxo
This is delicious! So easy too.
Very good, thanks!
I’m glad you like it! xo
When do you use you use the cider vinegar?
I wondered the same thing so I just added it in with the vegetable broth.
FYI: The ingredient list doesn’t list carrot.
Thanks for catching that, Julie! Fixed! xo
I am allergic to coconut, could I substitute almond or cashew milk in its place?