Recipe: Wild Rice Salad
Dear Friends;
Sometimes you just want something simple, something that you can dress up or down, have as a side–dish or as a main course, something you basically don’t have to think about too much.
Who has time to cook every meal from scratch?
And yet, when the desire is to eat as much whole, unprocessed food as possible, the pressure is on.
The solution? Cook once, eat a few times.
Make enough for dinner that you can have leftovers for the next days’ meals.
One food that is often overlooked but that fits this bill perfectly is wild rice. Did you know that wild rice is not a grain? In fact, it is an aquatic grass that is high in protein, fibre, folic acid and B-vitamins.
I have to give my husband credit here: DW has been a wild rice lover since his college days. It is the perfect student food in that it is easy, versatile and one pot can stretch into many different meals. Sweet, savoury, vegan, carnivorous, raw (and sprouted) or cooked, hot or cold – wild rice lends itself to both the simplest or the most exotic combinations.
I love it for breakfast: simply heat up a batch, add coconut milk, mix in a dash of cinnamon (I also love to spice it up with a pinch of cayenne) and top with seeds, nuts and dried or fresh fruit – my favourites are chopped, unsulphered apricots, sesame and hemp seeds, and a handful of almonds.
Wild rice, however, holds an additional trick up its sleeve: it is a perfect vessel for mixing and matching flavours. Combining it with sweet dried fruit, tangy spring onions, acidic balsamic vinegar, creamy avocado and a touch of salty rock salt is nothing short of fabulous!
And for those tentative souls in the kitchen, wild rice offers a wide berth -- it is extremely forgiving. So why not give it a whirl?
Wild Rice Salad
(note: this version is for a cold salad, but you can easily serve it warm as well. Simply rinse the rice in hot water after it’s cooked instead of cold)
(serves 4 as a side dish)
500 gr. wild rice, rinsed
1 large head broccoli, chopped into small pieces
5 spring / green onions, finely chopped
8 dried figs, soaked and rehydrated for a few minutes, finely chopped
½ cup dried cranberries (the kind with no sugar added)
1-2 T balsamic vinegar (to taste)
coarse sea salt (to taste)
1 generous handful fresh parsley
To cook the wild rice, combine 1 cup of the rice to 2 cups of water. Bring to a rolling boil. Lower the flame to low, cover and allow to simmer for about 40 minutes. Checking once or twice and top up water as needed. The rice is ready when it looks like it’s popped open, kind of like a banana in its peel.
In the mean time, lightly steam the broccoli for about 10 minutes – it should still be crunchy.
Combine the spring / green onions, figs and cranberries in a large bowl.
When the rice is ready, rinse well in cold water and add to the mixture in the bowl.
Dress with the balsamic vinegar and add the sea salt to taste.
Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.
With Love,
Gabriela
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