This Creamy Sausage Wild Rice Soup is incredibly easy to make and packed with flavor! It features hearty vegetables like butternut squash and spinach, fresh herbs, and just a touch of cream. It’s the ultimate cozy comfort food to keep you warm on chilly fall or winter evenings.
Sausage and Wild Rice Soup with Veggies
This well-balanced soup combines protein from Italian sausage, nutrient-rich and fiber-rich vegetables like butternut squash and spinach, and fiber-packed and protein-rich complex carbohydrates from wild rice. The wild rice is cooked separately before being added to the soup, but everything else comes together in a single pot. If you pre-cook the rice, this hearty and flavorful soup takes just 30 minutes to prepare! Plan ahead, as wild rice needs to be cooked separately in a separate pot for about 50 minutes. You can prepare the rest of the soup at the same time while the rice cooks, then stir in the cooked wild rice toward the end, bringing the total cooking time to about 60 minutes. If you’re short on time or don’t have wild rice, you can try this similar Italian sausage orzo soup, a quick and easy one-pot recipe ready in just 30 minutes.
Helpful tips
- What is the best pot for soup? Use a Dutch oven or a large, high-sided stockpot with a thick, even-heating metal base to make the soup. Alternatively, you can also use a wide, high-sided braiser, such as 3.5-quart Staub Braiser with a glass lid.
- What kind of sausage to use? I used crumbled spicy Italian sausage. Sweet or mild varieties are also great options. If using sausage links, remove the casings and crumble the sausage.
- Adjusting Seasonings. Add salt to taste, but skip if the sausage is already salty enought (it tends to be). Also, season with red pepper flakes, especially if using mild sausage, and garnish with fresh thyme.
Substitutions
- Wild Rice. Replace with brown rice, white rice, quinoa, or farro.
- Sausage. Use mild or sweet Italian sausage, spicy pork sausage (e.g., Jimmy Dean), ground turkey, or ground chicken for a leaner option.
- Butternut Squash. Substitute with carrots, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin.
- Spinach. Swap with kale, Swiss chard, arugula, or baby bok choy.
- Cream. Use half-and-half for a lighter option, or coconut milk for a dairy-free version. Oat cream is another plant-based alternative.
Make-ahead tips
- Wild Rice - Cook the wild rice up to a day in advance.
- Heavy Cream - Prepare the soup as directed but hold off on adding the heavy cream. Refrigerate the soup, then stir in the cream just before serving, once the soup is reheated and removed from heat (to avoid curdling).
Storage and reheating tips
- Refrigerate. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Reheat. Warm the soup gently on the stovetop in a saucpan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add a splash of chicken broth/stock, milk, or heavy cream if needed to restore creaminess.
Other soups to try
- Sausage Tortellini Soup
- Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup with Chicken
- Chicken Gnocchi Soup with Carrots and Zucchini
Creamy Sausage Wild Rice Soup with Veggies
Ingredients
Wild rice
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice
- 3 cups water
Soup
- 15 oz spicy crumbled Italian sausage
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning or Herbs from Provence
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 10 oz butternut squash peeled and cubed (about 2 cups)
- 5 oz fresh spinach
- ½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Cook wild rice according to package instructions, typically for 50 minutes. I used 1 cup of rice and 3 cups of boiling water.
- Heat a Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat and add crumbled sausage, chopped onion, and minced garlic. Cook for 5–10 minutes, stirring and breaking up the sausage, until the sausage is fully cooked. Drain excess fat.
- Stir in Italian seasoning, paprika, and tomato paste, then add 5 cups of chicken stock. Stir to dissolve the tomato paste and bring to a boil.
- Add cubed butternut squash and cook for 5–10 minutes until tender. (Alternatively, you can roast the squash in the oven.)
- Add fresh spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes until wilted.
- Stir in the cooked wild rice and simmer over low heat. Pour in heavy cream. At this point, you can add extra cream to make it creamier or add an extra cup of chicken stock or both. Top with fresh herbs.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Can I just say that I love Julia's soups! They're more on a unique side and very easy to make. My only complain is that you don't have enough of them, lol!