Cauliflower Wild Rice Curry Soup
This vegan cauliflower wild rice curry soup is as full of healthy ingredients as it is with flavor. Its savory, rich, and creamy base is made with coconut milk, pureed vegetables, vegetable broth and curry spices.
Servings 8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice soaked and cooked to 3 cups, see note
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 large white or yellow onion diced
- 2 medium carrots peeled and diced
- 2 stalks celery trimmed and diced
- 4-5 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 tablespoon curry powder or more to taste
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
- 2-3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- 4 cups or more fresh or frozen cauliflower florets
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt plus more to taste
- ½ cup curry-seasoned chickpeas for garnish, see note
- Chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Cook the rice according to package instructions or see instructions below.
- Meanwhile (about halfway through cooking the rice), heat the olive oil in a large stockpot or dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add the carrots and saute for 5 minutes; then the onion for about 5 minutes more, and the celery for 3 minutes after that.
- Stir in the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add the curry spices and saute briefly to flavor the oil (this is called tempering).
- Pour in the vegetable broth and add the cauliflower florets. Stir to coat the cauliflower with the seasonings (it will be rather crowded in the Instant Pot).
- Cover the Instant Pot and set to pressure-cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, with natural pressure release.
- Use an immersion blender to partly puree the cauliflower and other vegetables to your preference. I like mine a little chunky but without large blobs of vegetables. You can add the coconut milk now or after you have processed the vegetables.
- Add the cooked rice to the pot of soup and stir to incorporate. Set the heat to "slow-cook - high" and continue to simmer in the uncovered pot for about 5 minutes.
- Taste and season with sea salt. (I usually add a little more salt once the rice has soaked up some of the flavor.)
- Serve warm with the garnishes.
- Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
- If the soup is thicker than desired after refrigerating and reheating, simply whisk in a bit more vegetable broth or filtered water and adjust seasonings as needed.
Notes
Cooking the wild rice. Combine the 1 cup of rice with 2 cups of water. Allow to soak if you have time, at least an hour is best. Bring to a low boil, and turn down to a simmer so that the bubbling stays inside the pot and doesn't boil over. It's best to let the rice cook slowly, and using a pan with a glass lid will help you be sure it doesn't cook too fast and scorch. Rice is done when no more bubbles are rising above the grain and no liquid can be seen at the sides when you tilt the pot. 15-20 minutes. You can use any rice if you don't have wild: black, multicolored, brown, etc. The darker the color the more color contrast you will get.
For the lightly curried chickpea garnish, warm a little olive or coconut oil in a small saucepan and add the ½ cup cooked chickpeas. Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon curry powder and ¼ cup sea salt. Bring to a low simmer until the chickpeas shrink slightly but before they become too tough or crisp. Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoonfuls over each bowl of soup along with a small handful of cilantro to taste.