I got this recipe from Heidi Swanson, and have only altered it slightly. I’m grateful to this soup’s perfect soul-warming goodness in my cooking repertoire. Everybody loved it.

You can use whatever mushrooms you want here, but this was fabulous with the fancy mushrooms (shown below) found at Costco. I’ll also make this the next time I see fancy mushrooms at the farmer’s market. Tear apart these fancy mushrooms instead of taking a knife to them. If you don’t have exotic mushrooms available to you, chopping up brown button mushroom will work fine.

The hearty wild rice is this fabulous if you cook it right. Get the kind that is nothing else and not in a blend. You’ll know it is completely cooked when it is plump and split. (In the last photo below you can see what my cooked wild rice looked like.) To cook wild rice, your ratio is 1 cup rice to 3 cups salted water. So if you’re cooking 2 cups of wild rice, use 6 cups of water. Boil until the rice splits and grains are tender throughout, usually 50 – 60 minutes. Drain off any extra water if needed.

If you’d prefer to make this with cashew cream, blend 1 cup raw cashews with 1 cup of boiling water in a high speed blender until smooth.

And by “good vegetable broth,” I mean one that is actually made from organic vegetables without any manmade or unpronounceable ingredients.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup with Gruyere Recipe

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
3 shallots, chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
1 pound mushrooms, trimmed, chopped (or torn)
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
6 cups good vegetable broth
3 cups cooked wild rice (see note above)
1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
1 cup heavy cream (or cashew cream)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large pot over medium-high heat, add the butter. Stir until melted, then add the shallots and fresh thyme. Cook until the shallots soften, 4-5 minutes. Dial up the heat a bit, stir in the salt and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms release their liquid, and begin to brown, 10 minutes or so.

Add the broth and simmer for another 10 minutes or so, until the broth thickens just a bit. Stir in the wild rice and allow the broth to come back to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the grated cheese and cream. Season with more salt if needed and plenty of black pepper.

Serve warm. Enjoy!