My wife makes this dish for Thanksgiving every year. Though cranberries are in season roughly from October through December — which is when you are likely to make this — we prefer to use dried cranberries for their concentrated sweetness. Even when they are chopped into small bits, you taste cranberry in every bite.
Try to make this dish with naturally grown, hand-harvested wild rice. Despite its name, 80 to 90 percent of wild rice is actually commercially cultivated, and it doesn’t compare to the nutty, sweet flavor of the real thing. It can also be laced with pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizer. –Alfred Portale and Andrew Friedman
LC Wild Rice is Nice Note
We sorta forgot about wild rice after the ’80s. But it can be nice. See for yourself.
Wild Rice with Mushrooms, Cranberries, and Walnut Oil Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup wild rice
- 1/2 cup whole rolled oats or barley
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon canola oil or other mild vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups diced Portobello or other mushrooms
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon walnut oil
Directions
- 1. Bring 2 pots of salted water to a gentle boil. Add the wild rice to 1 pot and cook until tender but not mushy, 30 to 60 minutes. After 20 minutes, add the oats to the other pot and cook until tender, approximately 15 minutes.
- 2. Meanwhile, place the cranberries in a small bowl and cover with warm water and set aside until plumped.
- 3. Heat the oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and sauté until they soften and begin to release their liquid, 8 to 10 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper and transfer to a serving bowl.
- 4. Add the walnuts, shallots, and parsley to the mushrooms. Drain the cranberries and add them to the bowl. When the oats and wild rice are tender, drain them and add them to the bowl. (You can set the bowl aside at room temperature for quite some time if need be.)
- 5. When all of the ingredients have been added, drizzle the mixture with the walnut oil and toss gently. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve while still warm or at room temperature.
Hungry for more? Chow down on these:
- Wild Rice Salad from Macheesmo
- Broccoli slaw salad with cranberries, almonds, and yogurt dressing from The Perfect Pantry
- Wild Rice with Roasted Chestnuts and Cranberries from Leite's Culinaria
- Wild Mushroom Risotto with Peas from Leite's Culinaria
Wild Rice with Mushrooms, Cranberries, and Walnut Oil Recipe © 2004 Alfred Portale | Andrew Friedman. Photo © 2004 Gozen Koshida. All rights reserved.
[Adrienne Lee] This is an easy recipe with many very healthy ingredients. It makes a huge quantity and would be great for a party or Thanksgiving, as indicated in the headnote. I might add a splash of lemon juice if I made this again.