Press the saute button on the Instant Pot. Then press the adjust button to set saute to "less". Once it displays hot, add the olive oil.Then add the onion and garlic and saute for 5 minutes until onion is soft and translucent.
Add the chopped carrots, celery, sliced mushrooms and wild rice. Make sure you use original wild rice here and not the blend.Then add in the vegetable broth.
Add the dried thyme, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place few twigs of fresh sage on top.
Close the pot with its lid and press the manual or pressure cook button.Cook on high pressure for 40 minutes with the pressure valve in the sealing position. Let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.
Open the pot and press the saute button again (press adjust to bring saute to normal since we set it to less before). Add the cream cheese.You may also add 1 extra cup of broth here at this point if soup looks too thick.
Stir in the heavy cream. Let the soup simmer for 2 minutes until the cream cheese melts. Taste test and adjust seasonings and salt at this point.
Transfer mushroom wild rice soup into serving bowls and serve warm.
Stove-top Instructions
Saute the onion, garlic, carrots, celery and mushrooms in olive on stove top in a heavy bottom pan. Then add the rice, spices, herbs, broth and cook for around 45 minutes until the rice is cooked.Stir the cream cheese and cream at the end and stir until the cream cheese melts. Serve warm.
Notes
Adjust the quantity of seasonings to taste. You can add more or less of red chili flakes as per taste. You can also increase the quantity of thyme if you like.
The soup really thickens as it cools down, so you will needs to add water or broth to thin it out while reheating.
You may add more broth if you prefer a thinner consistency for your soup.