Wild Rice Information and a Wild Rice Mushroom Recipe

Wild rice is sold in stores in many places in the world, including all over the United States. This is a healthy and good tasting grain and people can collect it themselves in a lot of locations.

However, before we even get to the recipe, it really needs to be pointed out that wild rice is not rice. This can be confusing, so a little explanation is in order.

Difference between rice and wild rice

Both rice and wild rice are types of grass. In and of itself, this information means little. This is because wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn, sugar cane, and bamboo are all kinds of grass.

The rice that is the staple food for so many people is a number of species of plants of the genus Oryza. All rice originated from a plant called Oryza rufipogon, which still grows wild in south and southeast Asia.

Wild rice is any one of four species of plants in the genus Zizania. It has been collected and eaten by both Native American tribes and people in China for centuries. However, not only is it a totally different plant than rice, it isn’t even in the same genus.

Wild rice today

One of the similarities wild rice has with true rice is that both are aquatic grasses. Wild rice is an annual that grows in lakes, ponds, and cold rivers. It is especially abundant in areas of Canada, Wisconsin, and Minnesota and it is commercially grown in these places. It is still considered to be a wild plant, though, and it is extremely difficult to grow commercially. It can even be found here in Montana, wild.

This grain was extremely important to the Sioux Indians, as well as the Chippewa Indians, who still harvest it from the wild. The harvesting is done from a flat-bottomed canoe. The grass is bent over the side of the canoe and is then beaten with sticks to knock the ripe grain out of the seed clusters and into the bottom of the canoe. The grain can then be dried for later use.

Wild Rice Nutrition

Wild rice is highly nutritious. A cupful of raw wild rice contains about a fifth of the daily requirement of potassium, almost half the daily requirement of protein and a whopping 70% of the daily requirement of Magnesium needed for adults. It is also high in iron, very high in vitamin B6, reasonably high in Calcium, and it contains no cholesterol and virtually no sodium.

This grain is extremely high in dietary fiber, too. This gives it very good value for diabetics. The glycemic load index for wild rice is 16. Wild rice (and this recipe) is gluten-free. If it has a drawback, it is that the cupful has about 166 calories once it is cooked, which is high. Still, this grain is good for dieters because of its balance and high fiber and protein content.

Wild rice and mushroom recipe

All of the above said, including how it is harvested and the fact that this is still a wild food, the chances are that if you get wild rice, you will probably buy it from the store. This is okay, though, and this is one of the few store-bought foods that is almost identical in value to the personally harvested and dried version.

This recipe calls for portobello mushrooms, primarily because they are usually easy to come by. You can use portobellos, cremini mushrooms, button mushrooms, white mushrooms, champignon mushrooms, or meadow mushrooms; whichever is cheaper. I say this because these are all exactly the same mushroom, just with different common names. Thus, there is no need to buy the most expensive. They taste the same, regardless of the name they are given.

For a special treat, try this with morel mushrooms (though morels actually aren’t mushrooms, even though they are fungi.)

Wild rice and mushrooms ingredients:

• 1 pound portobello mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 pound wild rice
• 1/4 cup real butter
• 1/4 cup white wine or grape juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• coarse ground black pepper, to taste

Wild rice and mushroom instructions:

1. Pour 6 cups of water into a large pot and bring this to a boil over medium heat. Add the wild rice to the boiling water, stir, and reduce the heat to simmer.

2. Cover the pot and cook for about 30-40 minutes or until the grains start to puff up. Drain the water from the wild rice.

3. While the rice is simmering, put the butter in a large frying pan and heat over medium until the butter has melted. Add the mushrooms, stirring and sauteing for 5-10 minutes, until the fluid from the mushrooms has been released.

4. Drain the juice out of the frying pan, then add the salt and pepper. Return the pan to low heat and stir in the wine or grape juice. Cook for a few minutes, until the mushrooms have soaked up most of the wine.

5. Mix the mushrooms into the cooked wild rice and stir well. Add more salt if needed and desired.

This recipe is extremely good and it is healthy. It is a wild food recipe and it is especially great when made out in camp, after collecting the ingredients yourself and sun drying the wild rice. There is a sense of achievement involved in collecting your own. Still, this is a terrific recipe even if you use store-bought ingredients.

Whoever thought that they couldn’t eat healthy meals by eating wild plants was quite mistaken.