It is important to cook wild rice well to enjoy it in your meals. Wild Rice is a good nutritious substitute for potatoes, pasta or rice. The great thing about it is that it is gluten-free. You can eat it alone or add it to salads, soups, casseroles, and even desserts.
Now to make the perfect wild rice!
How to Cook Wild Rice Perfectly
Ingredients
- 1 cup wild rice
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
Instructions
- Rinse the wild rice in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse with cold running water to remove unwanted hulls and dust.
- Put the rice in the saucepan with 3 cups of water and soak overnight or for a few hours. I do this to help it to cook faster. You can skip soaking overnight and just start cooking it.
- The next day, add salt and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer/cook the rice for 50 – 60 minutes, depending on the type of wild rice you have.
- Cook until the rice is soft but not mushy and until most of the grains have burst open. Check the rice. It should be chewy with most of the grains burst open. It may need an extra 10 to 15 minutes. Keep checking the rice and only cook until the grains are tender.
- Fluff the wild rice that you have cooked with a fork and serve, or add it to any number of dishes for a delicious, nutty taste and chewy texture.
Notes
Try this delicious wild rice recipe:
Sweet Bell Peppers Stuffed with Wild Rice – This recipe is a favourite of mine. It’s yummy, beautiful and nutritious!
Delicious Wild Rice Risotto with Corn and Mushrooms – This is a delicious wild rice risotto which is very simple to make. The addition of mushrooms and corn makes it extra yummy.
Delightfully Delicious Wild Rice Salad – This wild rice salad is delicious, nourishing and filling. It has tasty colourful vegetables in it to give the wild rice a good contrast and is a crunchy salad for lunch or dinner.
Deluxe Tasty Wild Rice Pudding – This wild rice pudding is a new favorite pudding of mine. It has a creamy consistency and it is still vegan which I like. It is not overly sweet and yet is a sweet pudding with lots of flavour and lots of wild rice which is full of health benefits as it is a wonderful superfood.
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Hi Dianna. Two questions on this How To recipe. Step 2 suggests to soak overnight or for a few hours OR don’t . . . but there is no mention on what benefits there would be to soaking them so I’m not clear on why it would be suggested? Secondly, on Step 3 – do you rinse the old water the rice has been sitting in over night or not? Thank you.
It soaking is for making the rice cook faster.
As it says: "Put the rice in the saucepan with 3 cups of water and soak overnight or for a few hours.
The next day, add salt and bring to a boil over high heat."
There is no reason to throw the water away as it will be full of nutrients and has already been cleaned. I will add some information about why I soak the wild rice. Thank you for that.