As I’m preparing to share this post about how to cook wild rice, I realized that most people are far more likely to have access to a wild rice blend than an actual full bag of wild rice. So, in order to cover my bases…
Meet my favorite blend of wild rice!
You can, without a doubt, find this baby at the bulk section of your nearest Whole Foods.
What is a wild rice blend, and how does it taste?
It’s just a nice, big combination of rices. Nothing too fancy. You get the thickness and the heft of wild rice without the hefty price tag, and you also get a nice twist on your regular brown rice.
A good blend will contain anything from regular brown rice to red rices to even short black sticky rice, either in short or long grain varieties.
How do I store my wild rice blend after buying it?
You always, without a doubt, want to store your grains in a seal-top container. You don’t want to have the rude awakening of pulling out a cup of rice with little critters growing in it. Trust me. I learned this the hard way.
A seal-top, like this Ziploc one pictured above, works wonders. (Got ’em in a 3-pack from a LotLess, NYers. Winning.)
How do I choose a quality wild rice blend?
Look for blends that don’t contain “polished,” “pearled,” “bleached,” “hulled,” or “husked” rices. You don’t want anything white in there. They’re often used as filler, and affect whether or not you’re getting your money’s worth.
How do I cook my wild rice blend?
Keep it simple. 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice you plan to cook. Bring your water to a rolling boil, dump your rice in, stir it one time – and no, you don’t want to rinse this before you cook it – and leave it alone. Cover it, boil it for 45-50 minutes. You’ll know its done once your wild rice grains have started splitting and showing their fluffy insides. The average cup of uncooked rice yields about 3 cups of cooked rice.
…but what if you’re an adventurous type, like me, and you don’t want to keep it simple?
A cup of walnuts, a half-cup of cranberries, and a blend of a quarter-teaspoon of nutmeg with a tablespoon of butter for every 3 cups of cooked rice, and a healthy pinch of salt.
Whoomp, there it is.
What do you like to put in your wild rice blends? Gimme some ideas!