Sunday Soup #74: Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup

Helloooooooo, Souper Troopers! This is my first post in a while, I know... I went dark in November, and December was pretty busy with the holidays and all, so this is my first chance to get back at it. But, just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been cooking! In fact, I have three recipes and reviews ready to post now, and I'll be making another on Sunday!! So, to my three loyal readers, thank you... And, for everyone else who just likes to cruise by and see if anything looks good, let's get started with my first soup of the holiday... Was this one good enough to make Santa say ho-ho-ho, or would it make him want to say no-no-no? Let's see...

This recipe came from: https://pinchofyum.com/instant-pot-wild-rice-soup

*Pic 1 - https://pinchofyum.com/instant-pot-wild-rice-soup

My Variations from Recipe as Written: I used a wild rice mix, instead of the straight wild rice called for, because I could not find actual 100% wild rice. More on this later...

General Thoughts: I felt like a soup with some rice in it because... ya know... sometimes you just feel like rice. This recipe looked rich and creamy, and it called for mushrooms, so it looked promising. There isn't much I can say about how it actually looked or smelled while it was cooking because I made it in the Instant Pot. But, because of that fact, the prep was simple enough; a little chop, chop, chop on the carrots, celery, and onions, and that was about it! Quick and clean... But how did it taste?

*Pic 2 & 3 - Pictures from when I made it

The taste was... only okay. It was rather bland and unremarkable. The mushrooms were pleasant enough, and the other veggies imparted some measure of flavor, but it was mostly uninteresting and unremarkable. It certainly never made any of us say "yum."

The worst thing about this one was the texture and consistency. It straight up turned into wall paper paste! This is where the 100% wild rice (or the lack thereof) comes in, I am sure... The easily-available wild rice mix I got at the grocery store just went to mush in the pot. It put me in mind of gruel, oatmeal, or other gooey cooked grain. It was thick and gloppy, with all of the appeal you can probably imagine goes with that.

The best thing I can say about it... It had decent color.

Potential Improvements? If I were to make it again (which I likely won't), I would have to special order the wild rice. If that would keep it from turning into spackle, it could only be an improvement.

Polling the Fam: I'll save you the trouble here... Thumbs down all around. The only reason I am giving it two stars instead of one is that it just has to be better using actual wild rice, else they'd have been embarrassed to post it on their website, right?

Verdict: Not a fan. (2 stars)