Easy Vegan Fall Soup Recipes ~ Lemon & Wild Rice Soup

As much as I complain about the temperature dipping below what I find naturally comfortable, there are two things that I truly look forward to when autumn hits; Halloween and soups. Okay, the changing of the leaves is also a beautiful sight to behold but nothing is better than soup.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a creamy bisque, a hearty curry, a veggie stew or a delicious Asian inspired vegan Pho, or any other variety of noodle soups I can come up with, I want it all and I want it every day. Soup is my go to in fall and winter, consider it my warm liquid salad for the half the year. I haven’t made too many soups because it’s only just getting chilly, but the apartment block we rent in Romania is old school…like so old school that it is made up mostly of cement. Add to that, our side of the building is NOT the sunny side and you can see why I am constantly cold.

But, I digress. We were talking soups, no?

For today’s vegan soup recipe, I went with a simple lemon and wild rice soup, though it doesn’t taste anywhere near as simple as it sounds. I swear.

Soups are always easy vegan recipes because mostly they are or can be one pot recipes as well, which this one is. Sometimes I will make the rice separately but this time I wanted every grain of wild basmati rice to soak up all the waste free vegan broth, the lemon juice and all the delicious herbs and spices.

For this particular vegan soup recipe, I used things that I had in my crisper already like carrots and celery, shallots and onions. The good thing about this recipe is that it works well with just about any combination, just add lemons and wild rice.

I didn’t use a lot of cannellini beans in this recipe because it was just to give a little bit of thickness without using cornstarch or any other thickener. If you want to cut a few more calories or you just don’t dig beans the way I do, leave’em out and add some type of starch or just enjoy a regular non-thick soup.

This is also an oil-free soup recipe so keep that in mind when you start cooking. This time around, I skipped the soy sauce slurry and added a quarter cup of broth along with oregano, basil and marjoram. When it starts to steam or even boil, add the first batch of veggies, the onion, shallot, celery and carrot. Cook until they start to soften and then add garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Add 3 to 4 cups of broth and add the spinach, I used frozen so you might need less liquid if you opt for fresh spinach.

Bring the liquid to a boil and add the wild basmati rice or whatever wild rice you choose. I didn’t wait for the spinach to completely thaw out, but I did keep it in cold water until I was ready to use it. Let the grains soak up all that flavor. When the water comes to a boil again, stir and reduce it to a simmer. Cook until the rice is done, 10 to 15 minutes.

Now it’s time to add MORE FLAVOR!!! Add the creamy beans, the lemon juice and chopped parsley. Stir and taste for seasoning. Add whatever else you need, including more lemon juice and serve while it’s piping hot! Just kidding, that’s my preference but my husband dislikes it when the soup is that hot.

And there you have it, a delicious autumn vegan soup that is calorie friendly, tasty as hell and can be cooked in one pot which means minimal clean up afterwards. What else could you ask for?

Oh, right. Fresh thinly sliced scallions for garnish. Don’t forget those!