Rich, flavorful rice is wildly superior

September 7, 2008 12:16 am

WILD RICE is one of nature's richest foods. It's packed with more protein and fiber than regular rice, and loved by gourmet cooks for its intense, nutty flavor and firm texture.

If you're looking for ways to get more protein and fewer carbohydrates into your diet, consider eating wild rice.

Uncooked wild rice can keep for years, and many American Indians relied on it to sustain them through droughts and icy winters and while travelling.

THE CHIEF OF GRAINS

Wild rice is superior to many other grains, in nutrition and flavor. It is not a true rice or even a true grain, but the seed of an aquatic grass that can grow as high as 12 feet above the water in shallow lakes and streams.

Wild rice is botanically quite different from brown rice and white rice. Wild rice has 20 percent fewer calories and carbohydrates than brown or white rice. And wild rice supplies more protein, folate, blood-pressure-lowering potassium, and immune-system-building zinc.

You're less likely to overeat wild rice, not only because it has fewer calories but also because it has a much richer flavor.

BEYOND RICE PILAF

Many people have tried wild rice only in a rice pilaf. But it also tastes delicious made on its own as a side dish. I like chilled wild-rice salads, made with steamed wild rice mixed with sliced green onions, dried cranberries and tender green beans.

Wild rice adds wonderful richness when added to chicken soup or clam chowder. It tastes great added to tuna casserole, or added to stuffing for a Thanksgiving turkey.

My favorite savory wild-rice recipe mixes wild rice with mushrooms sauteed in butter and wine, sliced green onions and flakes of canned wild Alaskan salmon.

The last package of wild rice I bought came with recipes that even suggested eating wild rice for breakfast. You can cook wild rice like oatmeal and eat it mixed with milk and sweetened with fresh fruit, brown sugar or maple syrup. Or try folding cooked wild rice into pancake batter before sauteeing the pancakes on the griddle.

EASY TO COOK

There are two basic types of wild rice available in most markets: truly wild and farmed types.

Midwestern hand-harvested rice is said by some to have a better flavor and to cook faster than farmed hybrid "wild" rice grown in California rice paddies.

Farmed rice is shiny and black, compared with the lighter, matte-colored truly wild-grown type.

Many recipes tell you to add extra water and drain any leftover water. I don't like to do this because you lose some of the wonderful flavor as well as vitamins when you throw out the cooking water.

Instead, I like to use these more precise water guidelines from Rebecca Wood's "The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia."

For 1 cup of foraged wild rice, add 1 cups of water and and boil for 45 minutes. For 1 cup of farmed wild rice, add 2 cups of water and cook for 60 to 75 minutes. Wild rice is done when a few of the kernels split and curl into butterfly shapes.

Cooked wild rice keeps well in the refrigerator, so sometimes I make extra to use another day.

BUYING THE BEST

Wild rice tends to be more expensive than white or brown rice. However, wild rice expands more when cooked, which offsets some of the cost. For example, 1 cup of dry brown rice yields 3 cups cooked; 1 cup of dry wild rice yields 4 cups cooked.

When traveling through northern Wisconsin this summer, I was able to buy wild rice for as little as $3 a pound; but in gourmet markets, you can spend five times as much.

If you're willing to buy broken pieces of wild rice, you'll spend less money. This "lower" grade of wild rice is just as nutritious as the fancy long-grain version, although not as pretty.

California farmed wild rice is the easiest to find in supermarkets. Wild rice harvested by hand is harder to find. If you're not sure where to find it, you can order online.

Try bineshiiwildrice.com, 800/484-2347, a Minnesota business owned by Ojibwe Indians. You also might try tntwildrice.com, 715/545-3734, a Wisconsin business.

Wherever you find your wild rice, enjoy feasting on this delicious all-American treat.

Jennifer Motl welcomes reader questions via her Web site, brighteat ing.com, or mailed to Nutrition, The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401.

Here's what you'll get with every half-cup of cooked wild rice: 83 calories, 3.5 grams of protein, 17.5 grams of carbohydrate and 1.5 grams of fiber.

White rice, by contrast, loads you up with more carbohydrates and calories and provides less protein and no fiber.

Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice, and it gives you slightly more fiber than wild rice (2 grams compared with 1.5). But brown rice contains more carbohydrates, more calories and less protein than wild rice. See nutritiondata.com for details.

Jennifer Motl is a registered dietitian. Formerly of Fredericksburg, she now lives in Wisconsin.