Wild Rice Soup

Gifted by Greg* (Operations Manager)

INGREDIENTS

6 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock)

1 cup of uncooked rice

½ lb (230g) mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 medium carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 large (about 1 lb/460g) sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 small white onion, peeled and diced

1 bay leaf

1 ½ tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning or cajun spice blend

1 (14 oz/400ml) can unsweetened coconut milk

2 large handfuls of kale, roughly chopped with thick stems removed

Fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper (to taste)

Time

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Serves

Storage

Keeps well in the fridge and freezes well, just may need to add more liquid as the rice continues to absorb after cooking

METHOD

Sauté the veggies. Heat(a 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent. Stir in the garlic and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fragrant.

Add base ingredients. Add in the vegetable stock, wild rice, mushrooms, carrots, celery, sweet potato, bay leaf and cajun spice blend. Stir to combine.

Simmer. Continue cooking until the soup reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 30 - 40 minutes until the rice is tender, stirring occasionally.

Add final ingredients. Add the coconut milk and kale to the soup, and stir gently until combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper (plus any Old Bay/Cajun seasoning, if you would like to) as needed.

Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!

Notes from Greg: I love serving this soup with some crusty bread. Also note that the soup will continue to thicken as it cools. So if it gets too thick, feel free to add in extra broth and spice blend, to taste.

Tip: Make a Kale Stem Pesto using your discarded kale stems! Find the recipe on pg. 23 of Amazing Waste Cookbook

This delicious recipe is already 100% plant-based depending on your choice of stock. We recommend Better Than Bouillon's No Beef or No Chicken, but you only need one or two teaspoons to your 6 cups of water!

To make this plastic-free use vegetables bought fresh and plastic-free from markets, CSA programs and even some supermarkets. Fresh Street Market in the Whistler Village has a great variety of mushrooms sold loose so that you can buy only what you need and place them in your own re-usable bag or the paper bags provided.

Support your local farmers by looking to your local Farmers' Market and stockists of locally farmed vegetables.

Mushrooms are typically available fresh year round in BC. Onions August through March, carrots June through January, celery May through December and fresh garlic June through October
Check out what foods are in season in BC when HERE.
You can also look at We Heart Local BC for updates each month as to what's in season.Another great way to ensure you're using seasonal produce is to subscribe to a CSA Box with a local farm and structure your meals around the seasonal produce you've received that week!

*Adapted from Gimme some Oven - Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup

Photos by Bluebird Provisions and Keir Atkinson