Published September 14, 2019

For this week’s recipe video, I tried Gimme Some Oven’s Autumn Vegetable Rice Soup recipe. As I mentioned with last week’s pumpkin spice cookie recipe, I’m in the full fall spirit! So I decided to make this Autumn vegetable-based soup, and tweak it to match my preferences.

Autumn Vegetable Rice Soup Ingredients

Gimme Some Oven’s use of Old Bay Seasoning and kale inspired me to try this recipe. I’ve only used Old Bay Seasoning on shrimp and seafood. I was curious to see how it would taste in soup.

The weather in New Jersey has started to cool down, so the idea of a soup that was loaded with vegetables appealed to me.

If you cook frequently, you should already have the autumn vegetables on hand. I only bought kale and mushrooms from the farmer’s market.

I tweaked the amount of broth that the original recipe called for. When I looked in my pot, the 4 cups Gimme Some Oven recommends hardly looked like anything. Plus, I was worried the rice would absorb most of the liquid, and this would turn into vegetable rice, not soup.

I added two containers of chicken broth and then a few cups of water to be about 11 cups. You can use any type of broth that you want. I prefer chicken for the extra flavor. If you use vegetable broth, then this recipe is vegetarian.

I will note that I added more broth since I was cooking for a larger group. If you stick with the original 4 cups, the soup will be thicker and there will be fewer portions. I was able to feed 6 adults for two dinners and three lunches with my final pot of soup.

How to Make Autumn Vegetable Rice Soup

Gimme Some Oven’s recipe was challenging because the directions were vague. It instructed me to cook all the veggies in the pot, add the broth, thicken, and add the kale.

Based on other soups I’ve made, such as my leftover ham bone soup, I had an idea of how long and what order the ingredients should cook in. The above instructions are my approach to soup. Feel free to use whatever method works best for you.

Essentially, when you’re cooking the celery and onion, you want it to be soft, but not golden or brown (as that changes the flavor). The carrots and sweet potatoes will boil in the broth, so you don’t have to sauté them before adding the broth.

Gimme Some Oven uses special wild rice in her soup. I have a 10-pound bag of rice that I use for risotto, so that’s the type I added to my soup.

I’m sure you could substitute any grain for the wild rice, though you may want to cook it separate from the soup, as you wouldn’t want it to be mushy. For example, if you wanted to use pastina or couscous.

The original soup recipe by Gimme Some Oven, also said to use one or two large handfuls of kale.

My farmer’s market kale was giant, and I found that my portion of soup could use the entire bundle. So I chopped off the leaves, tore them into medium-sized pieces, and dropped them into the soup to wilt. You could use less depending on your taste. You could also try other leafy greens if you wanted.

The Final Product

Overall Thoughts

Flavor

By the time I thickened and served my soup, all the ingredients cooked perfectly. The carrots and sweet potatoes were soft but not mushy. Wilted kale and meaty mushrooms mixed well with the rice and rich broth.

I added pepper to the top of my soup (as I do with most dishes) and I would not recommend doing so. The Old Bay Seasoning provides a depth of flavor and bit of heat. Additional salt and pepper are unnecessary and can make the soup too bold and spicy.

Storage

Since I had enough leftovers for a few extra meals, I kept my soup in a porcelain bowl. The soup thickens a lot once it’s chilled, but once you reheat it, it goes back to the above consistency. It’s delicious with a crunchy piece of Italian bread.

I would have to test freezing this soup, to know if it could withstand thawing. My impression is no, because the vegetable textures might change upon thawing and reheating. But you could try it if you have leftovers.

Recipe Score

I would give Autumn vegetable rice soup a 10/10 for the following:

• Recipe Level

  • Mid-Beginner: Aside from the time cutting your ingredients, this recipe is straightforward. Add everything to a pot and let it simmer. Making a roux is where this can be a bit higher than an entry-level cook. If you don’t continually stir your roux, you can overcook/burn it. Make sure your milk is already nearby and measured so that you can add it to the flour and butter once it starts to boil.

• Ingredients

  • If you cook often, you’ll have most of these ingredients on-hand. Plus, the recipe has the flexibility to switch out ingredients for other seasonal vegetables.

• Prep

  • There is a lot of prep since the soup is vegetable-based. But it’s easy work, mostly peeling and chopping your vegetables. Your vegetable sizes don’t have to be identical. Once you have everything ready, the soup cooks in one pot for easy clean up.

• Flavor

  • 10/10: The vegetable textures give this soup a ton of flavor. The Old Bay Seasoning is by far the best part. If you didn’t know it was Old Bay, you wouldn’t be able to guess what gives the soup its depth of flavor.

K. Martinelli Makes Gimme Some Oven’s Autumn Vegetable Rice Soup

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