Some people think when you adopt a whole food plant based diet that your menu will be limited and your food choices are restrictive. Actually the opposite is true. Suddenly you discover a wide array of new food choices that you never even thought of before. Wild rice is one of my favorite foods now and something I rarely ate before unless it happened to be in a rice pilaf at a restaurant. Now I make it all the time. It couldn’t be easier to make using the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. Tom and I even made a short a video for you showing just how simple it is to make.
There are so many ways to enjoy wild rice – and it freezes well so go ahead and cook a pound of it at one time. Tom and I like to toss some cold wild rice into our Big Beautiful Salads or our Big Beautiful Chopped Salads. It has a nice chewy texture and a nutty flavor that we really enjoy. It’s also wonderful in veggie burgers – it adds a nice texture – just replace some or all of brown rice called for in the recipe. If you have a creamy butternut squash soup or a broccoli bisque soup toss in handful or two of wild rice to give the soup a little something to bite on! Make a pilaf – water saute some onions, mushrooms and garlic then add some herbs like Thyme and toss with hot wild rice. Add some oven roasted Kabocha squash and you have a meal. Toss some wild rice with sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, Italian seasoning and a splash of balsamic vinegar – yum!
After the rice cools down divide it into smaller portions and freeze it. We freeze it in 4 cup containers. You can also use the quart size freezer bags – they lay flat and you can stack them – perfect for smaller freezers.
Watch this video and see how easy it is to make wild rice in the pressure cooker. I buy the organic wild rice from the bulk bins at Whole Foods. I didn’t show rinsing the rice but it is a good idea to rinse your rice with cold water before cooking it.
Nutmeg Notes
It has been feeling like Spring here this past week with un-seasonably warm temperatures. Our trees are blooming and the neighbors daffodils are already in bloom. It is so exciting! This starts me thinking about different foods and lighter recipes.
I have my first in home cooking class coming up later this month. I am very excited that so many people have signed up and are interested in learning how to cook delicious whole food plant based recipes. It’s a blessing to be able to share about this healthy lifestyle and how amazing the food is.
Happy Healthy Cooking,
Tami
I now have an Amazon Recommendations Page! It has the items on it that I use and I will be adding items to it as I discover new things that make this lifestyle easier. When you purchased Amazon items through my links you help support my work here without any extra cost to you. If you want to find the link in the future just click on the Shop tab at the top of this page. Thank you for your support.
A Little Nutmeg Nugget: When I started this blog in January of 2010 I followed what I understood to be a healthy version of the standard American diet, ironically also known as the “SAD” diet. As interest in my own health and how it was affected by the food I ate evolved, I transitioned to a whole food plant based diet also known as “WFPB” diet. I have wrestled with the fact that this blog still contains all those posts and recipes from the SAD way of eating I have left behind. I no longer advocate for anyone to eat that way. At this time I am leaving those recipes and posts here. It is a record of my journey and how I came to follow a WFPB way of eating. It is my hope that those who still come here for those old recipes will be curious about what I am doing now. Perhaps they will dip their toes across the line as I did and try some plant based recipes and learn more about the health benefits.
Have you tried Wild Rice – if so how do you like to eat it? Leave me a comment!
Heidi Zomnir (Heidi Zee on UWL)
Another wonderful post, Tami! I’m so excited to let you know that I shared this with my son, who follows a WFPB diet and asked for an IP for his birthday. He’s very interested in learning to use the IP to batch-cook so he has plenty of food in the fridge to help sustain his very healthy lifestyle. I’m so proud of him, and so happy to know I can point him in your direction for expert, warmly-presented, oh-so creative ideas and information. Thanks so much for all you do!!
Tami
Hello Heidi!
How wonderful that your son is following a WFPB lifestyle. Batch cooking is how we create our own “fast food!” I am so delighted that you are sharing my blog posts with your son. That is the best vote of confidence I could hope for!
Happy healthy cooking,
Tami
Patricia Rebsch
Tami, I so enjoy your site here. Thank you for all your hard work to make videos for us new people! Question: Do you change out the sealing rings to go from savory to a sweet food cooked in your Instant Pot? I have heard that some people have savory tastes when they use the same sealing ring. What do you so? Thank you!
Tami
Hi Patricia and thank you for your kind comments. I don’t change the sealing ring but I know there are people who do have more than one. If you make a lot of strongly flavored foods with let’s say Indian spices the ring can retain that and perhaps transfer that flavor to something else. I might not have that sensitive of taste buds because that hasn’t been an issue for me so far. You can purchase additional sealing rings on Amazon and switch them if you find it happening for you. Happy Cooking, Tami