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Wild Rice with Wild Mushrooms and Other Wild Things

It’s pretty much guaranteed that if you’re looking for a wild rice recipe, it’s going to have wild mushrooms too. Although, unless you’re hunting them yourself, “wild” mushrooms are pretty hard to come by. After scouring local stores for mushrooms, the most exotic I could find were shiitake and oyster. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sticking with the wild theme, I wanted to include as many ingredients as possible that could be called wild. So, I threw in some dandelion greens (trust me, dandelion is the new kale and they’re becoming easier and easier to find in grocery stores), garlic, green onions, with parsley and pine nuts as a garnish.

By the way, did you know that pine nuts are actually the seeds of pine cones? The seeds are difficult to extract from the cones, so specially-trained squirrels are often hired to do most of the manual labor. Once you factor in the number of nuts the squirrels eat on the job, and their aggressive labor unions, now you know why they cost $20/pound in the bulk bins!

…Anyways! This recipe is classic “One Ingredient” – an easy meal with simple ingredients that highlight the natural flavors of real food. The slight sweetness of the rice, the bitter dandelion greens, the meaty mushrooms – it’s so delicious and satisfying on every level. It really reminds me of what One Ingredient is all about, and I think you guys will, um, go wild for it.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups dry wild rice blend
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 2+ cups various mushrooms
  • 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 4 green onions
  • 2 cups greens (dandelion or arugula)
  • black pepper, to taste
  • Tofu or tempeh (optional)
  • 1/3 cup fresh parsley, for garnish
  • 3 tablespoons pine nuts, for garnish

Step One

Cook the wild rice. You can use 100% wild rice but it’s about twice as expensive, and I really like the more commonly sold wild “blends” that also include brown, red, black rice, etc. Cook according to package instructions in a large skillet. However I highly recommend replacing two cups of the water with vegetable broth – it will add so much flavor to the finished dish.

Step Two

While the rice is cooking (wild rice takes about 45 minutes), we’ll sautéed the mushrooms and all the other wild things in a separate skillet. Slice at least two cups of mushrooms (they don’t actually have to be wild, I used shiitake, oyster, and crimini) and add them to the skillet with a splash of soy sauce and two cloves of minced garlic. Once the ‘shrooms have reduced significantly, add in four chopped green onions and a few handfuls of loosely chopped greens (dandelion, preferably, or arugula) and give them just a few minutes to wilt over medium-low heat.

If you want to make this a more complete meal with extra protein, you could also add some chopped tofu or tempeh into the skillet at this point.

Step Three

Finally, when the rice is done, combine the contents of both skillets into one and toss until everything is evenly mixed together. To serve, chop some fresh parsley and pine nuts together and sprinkle on top of each serving dish.

6 Comments

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  1. Thank you !!! This will be my BringVegan dish next week, along with my sweet potato, cranberry sauce, and vegan butter (because they don’t know..) !!! You made my holiday!!!

    • Aw, that’s awesome! I’ll be bringing a lentil loaf… maple pecan pie bars… a Caesar salad… and some mushroom gravy (because if I don’t, I won’t have anything to eat, haha). Have a great Thanksgiving!

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