Wild Rice Stuffing

Fall is my favourite time of the year.  Summer is nice but eventually I get tired of the heat and the long busy days on the farm.  As the days cool off it's nice to put on a sweater and go for a walk, with the fallen leaves crunching under foot, admiring the beautiful colours that will only last a short time.

  When the time for potato salad and corn on the cob are over I love cooking "fall food"; soup and pie, roast chicken and gravy, and the Wild Rice Stuffing I am sharing with you today.  I never actually stuff anything with it but it is made in a similar way to traditional bread stuffing.  We have this occasionally throughout the fall and winter with roast chicken, beef or pork.  Whenever I serve it to company they usually take seconds.

Wild rice is not actually a rice at all but a grass that is native to North America. It is similar to rice in that it grows in water.  Traditionally the First Nations People harvested it in canoes, hitting the heads of the ripe grass with a stick so that the seeds would fall into their canoe.  Wild rice is high in B vitamins and is a complete protein with 6.5 grams per 1 cup of cooked rice.  It is more expensive than regular rice but it increases in volume 4 to 5 times, which is more than regular rice.

                           

To cook wild rice you should first rinse it under cold water.  For 1 cup of rice, bring it to a boil in a medium sized sauce pan with approximately 6 to 7 cups of water.  When it boils, put the lid on, remove from heat and let sit for one hour.  Drain the water then add 6 to 7 cups of fresh water and bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until rice has puffed.  Other recipes recommend cooking it just once, but by discarding the first batch of water the flavour of the cooked rice is more mild.

 

 

Wild Rice Stuffing 

• 1/3 cup butter
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 2 cups diced celery 
• 1 large onion, chopped 
• 3/4 tsp sea salt 
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 1/4 tsp poultry seasoning 
• 1 cup uncooked wild rice (4-5 cups cooked)

Sauté carrots, celery and onion in melted butter for 30 - 40 minutes. Add spices and cooked wild rice. (Directions for cooking wild rice are above). Mix and serve.