Pressure Cooker Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

This comforting soup tastes long-simmered, but it’s cooked in a pressure cooker, which makes it a weeknight possibility (though you could also make this recipe in a slow cooker). Use any variety of mushrooms you like: Cremini mushrooms (also called baby bella) are affordable and easy to find and work well, or you can add shiitake or oyster mushrooms for a mix of texture and flavors. Don’t worry about removing small, supple mushroom stems, but discard any tough, dried out stems. Wild rice isn’t a true rice at all but the seed of a grass that’s native to North America. When it’s cooked, it should be pleasantly chewy and nutty, not hard, and most of the grains should be slightly split open to reveal their creamy insides.

Ingredients

• 4

  tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

• 1

  yellow or red onion, minced

• 2

  pounds mixed mushrooms (such as cremini and shiitake), tough stems removed, mushrooms chopped into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces

• Kosher salt and black pepper

• 2

  celery stalks, chopped

• 1

  large carrot, peeled and chopped

• 6

  garlic cloves, smashed and chopped

• 3

  sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1

  teaspoon garlic powder

• ¼

  cup all-purpose flour

• 5

  cups vegetable or chicken stock

• ½

  cup dry white wine (see Tip)

• 1

  cup wild rice (about 6 ounces)

• ½

  cup sour cream

• Chopped scallions or chives and fresh dill, for topping

Preparation

1. Turn on the sauté setting on a 6- to 8-quart electric pressure cooker. Melt the butter, then add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the mushrooms and 1 teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their liquid and shrunk a bit, about 8 minutes. Add the celery, carrot, chopped garlic, thyme, garlic powder and several generous grinds of black pepper. Stir to combine. Add the flour and stir until the vegetables are evenly coated and no white spots remain.
3. Pour in the stock and wine and turn off the heat. Scrape the bottom of the pot very well to incorporate flour and any browned bits that are stuck to the bottom. (This will add flavor and also prevent a burn warning later.) Stir in the wild rice.
4. Cook on high pressure for 10 to 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pressure reduce naturally for 10 minutes, then release the remaining pressure manually.
5. Stir the soup and check the texture of the wild rice; if it needs a bit more time repeat the pressure cooking process for a cook time of 2 minutes and rapidly release the pressure. Check the texture of the soup; if you’d like it to be thicker, turn on the sauté function and let the soup simmer to reduce to desired consistency. Turn off the heat.
6. Put the sour cream in a small bowl and slowly whisk in a few spoonfuls of warm soup until smooth, then stir the mixture into the soup. (This prevents the sour cream from separating.) Taste the soup and add additional salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve the soup in bowls topped with chopped scallions or chives and dill. Reheat any leftovers on low until warm. (Boiling can cause the sour cream to break.)