50 States of MoFo: Minnesota: Wild Rice Soup

When it came time for Minnesota, I was sorely tempted to veganize Cookie Salad or Glorified Rice.  However, health won out tonight, and I decided to make something from wild rice, a crop often associated with Minnesota.  

I like wild rice and most often copy a friend in making a cold salad of wild rice, green beans, red onions, and toasted pumpkin seeds, with a dressing of olive oil, umeboshi vinegar, and dijon mustard.  However, that salad recipe seems more appropriate to warm weather, and the internet revealed many wild rice soup recipes from Minnesota.  After reading through several of them, here's what I came up with:

1. Combine in a soup pot:   6 cups vegetable broth (in my case, 6 cups water + 2 T Better-than-Bouillon paste), 1 T nutritional yeast, 1 t poultry seasoning, 1 T olive oil, and 2/3 c. wild rice.   (That's all the wild rice I had in the cupboard.  When making again, I might add a little more.)   Bring this to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

2.  Add 2 small carrots (chopped), 1/2 of a small onion (chopped), and 4 large celery stalks (chopped).   Return to a boil, cover, and simmer for another 15 minutes.   Check the wild rice.  It should be cooked, or very nearly so.   If it is still too hard, let it simmer a few more minutes.

3. Stir together 1/4 c white wine, 1/2 c water, and 2 T all purpose flour.  Pour this into the soup, and bring back to a boil.  Simmer for a minute or two until it thickens just a bit.   Stir in 1 c plain unsweetened soy milk.  Taste.  Add black pepper and celery salt to taste.  (You'll probably need a teaspoon or so of celery salt unless your broth was particularly salty.)  Continue to simmer just until it is heated through, and then serve.

This made a gentle, pleasant soup for supper.  We served it with thin slices of French bread and green olives --- probably not traditional, but good anyway!