Wild rice with herbed vegetables and tree nuts

This is the rice dish you want to take to your supper club

Wild rice isn’t actually a rice at all, but rather the grain from one of four types of grass. It takes forever to cook.  It’s delicious and nutritious, though, and is worth the time. Adding the herbed vegetable mixture below just makes it that much better.  This dish, which some would call a dressing, compliments game meats well. Serves 4-6.

Recipe courtesy:    Casey and Laura Hancock

Ingredients

• 3 small packages of wild rice
• plain wild rice, not quick-cook, blends or brown rice
• Olive oil
• ½ sweet yellow onion
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 pint mushrooms
• ½ bell pepper
• 4-8 cloves garlic
• ¼ stick butter
• ½ c nuts (walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, almonds, and/or cashews)
• ¼ c chopped herbs (oregano, sage, thyme, parsley, and/or rosemary)
• ¼ fresh black pepper
• salt to taste

Preparation

The rice

Prepare the wild rice according to the package directions. It usually takes at least 1 hour. Add salt and pepper to the cooking water as desired.

Drain the rice and set aside, keeping it warm.

The vegetable mixture

Dice the carrots and add them to an oiled pan on medium heat. The carrots take the longest to cook. Dice and add the garlic, onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, and celery. Salt to taste. Stir to cook the vegetables.

When the vegetables have finished cooking, add the butter, nuts, and herbs. Salt to taste. Cook the nuts for 2-3 minutes, just enough to warm them through as they burn easily.

Combine

Fold the vegetable mixture into the cooked rice. Warm the mixture if needed and serve immediately.