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This Instant Pot wild rice soup recipe is cozy and naturally creamy, a delicious and filling dinner that pleases everyone. It has become a fan favorite recipe with many positive reviews from readers!
Over the years, the Instant Pot become a well-used tool in our house! Don’t get us wrong: it doesn’t cook food in an instant. But it does make quick the easy, hands-off way to make soup: no stovetop required!
This Instant Pot wild rice soup recipe is a spin on our classic wild rice soup that is a reader favorite! Everyone we’ve served it to positively raves about it: it’s the perfect cozy dinner. Even better, the Instant Pot cooks dried beans in the same time as the rice (wow!). When I took the first bite after Alex made this recipe for me, I was blown away! Here are all the secrets to this delicious, hearty soup recipe.
Featured reader comments
“This soup was so delicious and warming! A perfect soup for fall or winter with the combination of aromatic herbs, ingredients, and creaminess. Oooh, it was so good! This will become a fall/winter favorite!” -Jan
“OMG this is so tasty! This will be on repeat. Thank you!” -Helen
“This was so great! I wasn’t sure I would be able to sell the meatless version to my family and they are crazy about it!” -Michelle
Basic steps for Instant Pot wild rice soup
This wild rice soup recipe is a bit different than most, since it’s made in a pressure cooker not the stovetop! Also, we decided to create this wild rice soup without using meat or dairy, so it’s naturally creamy. We’ve made lots of Instant Pot soup recipes, but this one remains a favorite!
- First, you’ll use the Sauté mode on the Instant Pot. Sauté up the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and mushrooms, then add the remainder of the ingredients and pressure cook.
- While the soup is cooking, you’ll soak some cashews.
- Once the soup is done, you’ll blend together the cashews with some of the soup and some dried sage to create a naturally creamy base without cream.
Why make Instant Pot soup?
The advantage of cooking this soup in an Instant Pot instead of the stovetop is that it’s totally hands off once the cooking starts. You can throw the soup in the pot and then go do other things, until your dinner is done! Because this recipe takes over 1 hour to make, we made the serving size large: it serves about 8. That way, you can have plenty for leftovers.
Tips for making soup with dried beans
For this wild rice soup recipe, we’ve used dried white beans in the Instant Pot. In a normal stovetop soup recipe, you would typically use canned or already cooked beans and add them to the soup.
Because the wild rice takes so long to cook already, we decided to add dried white beans to this soup recipe. They’re cheaper and taste even better than canned, and they also add a filling protein to the soup. Keep in mind that that you may need a few extra minutes on the cook time if the beans are not fully tender after the timing in the recipe below.
Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup Recipe
This Instant Pot wild rice soup recipe is cozy and naturally creamy, so it’s a 100% plant based dinner. Serve with crusty bread. For a stovetop version, go to Best Wild Rice Soup.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw or roasted cashews*
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 2 celery ribs
- 4 medium carrots
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup wild rice (not a wild rice blend)
- 1 cup dried great northern white beans (not canned! The Instant Pot will cook the dry beans)
- 2 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried sage
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce, tamari, or liquid aminos
Instructions
- Place the cashews in a bowl and cover them with water. Leave them to soak while you make the recipe.
- Dice the onion. Thinly slice the celery. Cut the carrot into rounds. Slice the mushrooms. Mince the garlic.
- Add the olive oil to the Instant Pot and turn on Saute mode. Add the onion, celery and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes until lightly browned. Add mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes. Add garlic, thyme and oregano and stir for 2 minutes.
- Add the broth, wild rice, dried white beans, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, and black pepper. Lock the lid of the Instant Pot. Place the pressure release handle (vent) in the “Sealing” position.
- Cook on High Pressure for 45 minutes: Press the Pressure Cook button, making sure the “High Pressure” setting is selected, and set the time. Note that it takes about 5 to 10 minutes for the pot to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it starts cooking. (During cooking, avoid touching the metal part of the lid.)
- Quick release: Vent the remaining steam from the Instant Pot by moving the pressure release handle to “Venting”, covering your hand with a towel or hot pad. Never put your hands or face near the vent when releasing steam. Open the pressure cooker lid. Taste a bean to see if it is tender (bean brands can vary). If not, cook on High Pressure for another 5 minutes and do a quick release.
- Using a liquid measuring cup, carefully remove 2 cups of the hot soup (including the broth, veggies and rice) to a blender. Drain the cashews and add them to the blender with the dried sage. Blend on high for about 1 minute until creamy. Then pour back into the soup.
- Add ½ teaspoon kosher salt and the soy sauce. Taste, and adjust seasonings as desired. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh ground pepper.
Notes
*If you use roasted salted cashews, omit the soy sauce at the end; then add it to taste. If you have a cashew allergy, try using the same amount of whole milk or cream to make a creamy base.
More Instant Pot recipes
Outside of this wild rice soup recipe, here are some of our favorite Instant Pot soups:
- This Instant Pot vegetarian chili is hearty and delicious
- Our Instant Pot lentil soup is an easy vegetarian meal that everyone will love
- This Instant Pot Potato Soup, Instant Pot Minestrone, and Instant Pot Split Pea Soup are cozy favorites
This soup did take awhile to prepare (and I did need the extra 5 minutes for the beans to tenderize), but it was SO delicious and warming! A perfect soup for fall or winter with the combination of aromatic herbs, ingredients, and creaminess. Oooh, it was so good! This will become a fall/winter favorite!
As I was working my way through the recipe, I saw TWO tablespoons of dried oregano, and ONE tablespoon of dried thyme and thought it was a typo. I used 1 TB of oregano, and against my better judgment, added the 1 TB of thyme. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. I’m now left with a pot of soup no one will eat. The oregano and thyme completely overwhelm the flavor profile. I can possibly add a LOT more broth to dilute the soup.
I cooked this recipe based on the rave reviews. Am I the only cook who found the seasonings overpowering?
We really enjoy the intense seasoning in this recipe! I’m sorry you did not like it.
This soup turned out so delicious! I had a wilting leek that I chopped and threw in with the onions and I added a chopped Yukon potato with the mushrooms. I didn’t have dried beans so I reduced the broth to 6 cups and added canned northern beans at the end along with a cup of thawed frozen spinach. Every thing else exactly as written. WOW! I will definitely make this again!
Made it exactly as the recipe states and was absolutely delicious!
Great recipe! I omitted the sage at the end (because I didn’t have any) and didn’t feel like it was missing anything
Hello! Are there alternative means of preparation that do not require an instant pot? I don’t have one yet am interested in trying this recipe.
Indeed there is: https://www.acouplecooks.com/wild-rice-soup/
Hi,
I get nervous using the quick release function when making high-liquid content recipes, like soup. Even with beans, I’ve had some bubbling up through the vent despite being well below the max line. If I used natural release, how much should I reduce the cooking time to compensate?
Thanks!
Ashley
I’m not sure, sorry!
Up until this one, each meal has hit the bull’s eyes. This one was an epic failure. It turned out like mush, thicker than potage or chowder. More like a thick oatmeal or porridge after blending and adding the 2 cups of soup and cashews. It was a thick soup before the last step of adding the cashew cream.
I have re-read the instructions and didn’t deter at all. I don’t know why. This turned out wildly different than the photos.
I have never had success cooking with dry beans. Never. I had to pressure cook (on high pressure) another 5 mins to soften them but, very quickly, my instant pot gave an alert that the food was burning–the rice sticking to the bottom. I used wholefoods 365 northern white beans. Everything else was sourced from Trader Joe’s. The rice was a long-grain Basmati from India. Maybe that was it. That was the only long grain they had. WFs only had blended rice that day. Because I’m Keto, I try to avoid rice and usually only eat the blended.
Before I threw it away, I ate it over quinoa. That and the rice together drove my carb load beyond what my keto diet allows. Anyhow, not to be a complainer. Just wish I knew how I went wrong. I think you both are lovely. I love your site and every other recipe has been fantastic!! I love the recipes. We have so much variety in our meals esp the Vegetarian / Vegan recipes… thanks so much to you both!!
I’m very sorry to hear that! This recipe requires wild rice, which actually isn’t rice at all. Substituting basmati is what caused it to get so thick. Wild rice doesn’t gum up in the same way.
All the bets,
Alex