Add wild rice to your Thanksgiving menu

Just harvested grains of wild rice.

I'm deviating from travel posts to share a few recipes after seeing the huge interest in earlier wild rice posts.

One dish become almost as important as turkey and mashed at our family Thanksgivings since friends shared the original recipe in the 1970s. It has since spanned the globe from Hawaii to Germany.

It's designed for cultivated wild rice, which requires longer to cook. If you're using the hand-harvested truly wild rice, it only takes about 20 minutes. We usually double the recipe so there is extra to freeze or make creamy wild rice soup with the leftovers.

Read more about great restaurants serving wild rice or the difference between hand-harvested and cultivated wild rice in earlier posts.

Wild rice soaked overnight.

Wild rice with mushrooms & pecans

This recipe has followed us from Hawaii to Germany as we've shared it with everyone. We often double it and use leftovers for a creamy wild rice soup.

4 T. butter

2 T. grated carrot

2T. finely diced celery

2 T. finely diced onion

1 C. wild rice (let it soak overnight & drain it)

1 tsp. salt

2 C. chicken broth

½ lb. mushrooms, coarsely chopped

2 T. finely chopped fresh parsley

¼ C. finely chopped pecans (or almonds)

Melt 2 T. butter over medium heat until it foams. Add vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, 10-15 min. They should be soft but not brown. Stir in cup of rice plus salt. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Cover pan tightly, turn heat to low and let cook undisturbed for 45 minutes until rice is tender and liquid absorbed. About 10 minutes before rice is ready, melt remaining 2 T. of butter. Add mushrooms and parsley and cook about 5 min. Add pecans & cook 2-3 more minutes. Add to rice and fluff with a fork. Enjoy!

Wild Rice with cherries and red pepper

This is a more unexpected version of a wild rice side dish that's served at Quivey's Grove, a restaurant in Madison, Wis. It's one of my most memorable dining experiences for the historic atmosphere and their focus on traditional Wisconsin ingredients. The dried cherries sweetly complement the nutty taste of wild rice.

2 T. olive oil

3 T. white wine

1 minced shallot

1/2 leek (the white part) cleaned and finely diced

1 finely diced celery rib

1/2 half finely diced red bell pepper

1/2 t. coriander

1/2 T. fresh sage

1/2 C. dried cherries

1 C. wild rice

3 C. chicken broth

Rinse the wild rice well in a colander under cold, running water. Saute the leek, celery, and pepper in the olive oil and wine. Heat the stock. Add the rice and stir to coat thoroughly. Add the spices and dried cherries. Add the simmering stock and cover. Simmer gently until all the liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. 4 servings.

Best places to eat wild rice

Since it's wild rice season in Minnesota, here are a few of our favorite places to enjoy this nutty grain also known as Mahnomin:

Clearwater Travel Plaza's fritter French Toast and wild rice sausage.

Savory wild rice sausage
Clearwater Travel Plaza, Clearwater, Minn.
This bustling, impressive pit stop on I-94 south of St. Cloud built a huge fan base with its homemade fritter bread French toast. It's accented beautifully with plump, savory wild rice sausages made down the road at McDonald Meats in Clear Lake. You can grab a to-go package at the plaza or at the meat market.

Sweetest bowl of wild rice
Hell's Kitchen, Minneapolis, Minn.
Owner Mitch Omer serves hand-harvested wild rice in a bowl with dried blueberries, craisins, real maple syrup and cream. He found inspiration for Mahnomin Porridge reading through fur traders' journals. Hell's makes tasty, zippy and creative soups and sandwiches, but we lust most for the breakfast menu's lemon ricotta hotcakes and toasted bison sausage bread made with coffee, currants and pie spices. Sadly, they no longer serve breakfast at Hell's in Duluth's Canal Park.

Cozy Red Paddle Bistro at Gunflint Lodge

Wild rice on pizza? You bet.
Coho Cafe & Bakery, Tofte, Minn.
Get ready for an earthy, savory and unforgettable blend of shitake, button and portabella mushrooms with locally made wild rice sausage on the cafe's Call of the Wild pizza. There are plenty of surprising and tasty twists on familiar foods in this hip, kick-back gourmet cafe nestled along the Lake Superior harbor.

Best wild rice soup
Red Paddle Bistro, Gunflint Lodge on Minnesota's Gunflint Trail
I've had plenty of good creamy wild rice soups over the years but one of the most delicious and unexpected ones was here. The colorful walleye chowder blends nutty wild rice with tender bits of walleye, sweet corn and tangy sun-dried tomatoes. The setting--a warmly glowing wood-paneled restaurant overlooking the indigo blue of a winter's night--doesn't hurt.

Quivey's Grove

Tastiest wild rice side dish
Quivey's Grove, Madison, Wis.
One of my all-time favorite meals was at this historic stone carriage house on the outskirts of Madison, Wis. Steeped in history, the owners let historic meals influence their entrees such as trout, tender beef and pork chops. What I remember most was the complex savory-sweet nicely textured wild rice side dish. It blends sage, coriander, celery, red pepper, chicken broth and tangy bits of dried cherries.

There are surely more amazing wild rice meals across the state. Please feel free to comment and share your favorites.

Read other wild rice posts:

• History of wild rice and harvest season.
• Quivey's Grove recipe and our family's favorite wild rice casserole.

Minnesota's Wild Rice Season

Wild ricing on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.

The Bois Forte Heritage Center, a wonderful and overlooked Native American museum near Tower, Minnesota, beautifully tells the story of how their band of Ojibwe came to Minnesota. After being forced from the East Coast, a guiding spirit told them to go where food grows on the water.

That food--wild rice that thrives in the shallows of Minnesota and Wisconsin lakes--sustained them and remains a cherished part of their culture.

Celebrate the Wild Rice Moon

In late August and early September--the time of the Wild Rice Moon--tribal members and others head across the state to ricing lakes.

Raw wild rice from the Crow Wing lakes.

They pole through through the grasses, rhythmically using cedar ricing sticks to sweep the grasses over the canoe and gently knock the ripened grains into the bottom. I was fortunate enough to ride along with Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe conservation officer, Frank Bowstring, a few years ago. During his childhood, kids could get out of school to help with the rice harvest which could pay for school clothes.

We watched a few ricers head onto Nature Lake. They expertly captured wild rice grains with skills passed through the generations. Later, we watched water-rich green rice meticulously parched in iron drums that rotated over wood fires in Cass Lake. Once it dried and chaff was removed, bags of processed rice piled up with the name of the ricer written across burlap bags.

Hand-harvest wild rice vs. cultivated

The thick, plump mottled earth tones of hand-harvested wild rice is clearly a different product than cultivated rice. Cultivated rice, with its shiny, thin ebony grains are bred to be machine-harvested. With the tough hulls, it takes 45 minutes to cook. True wild rice takes only 20 minutes. The White Earth Band of Ojibwe has long fought to highlight the differences and to maintain this sacred crop.

Green wild rice ready for processing

I consider myself a harvest junkie, but will leave wild ricing to the experts. And I'll more gratefully invest in bags of wild rice knowing the labor that's involved.

Wild rice across the state

Anyone can rice, and many people do it as a seasonal passion. A license is required through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which can also help you find accessible rivers and shallow lakes. (Only tribal members can rice on reservations.) Following waterfowl helps, too--the rice is their equivalent of an energy bar for the long migration south.

Wild rice on a stalk.

The DNR estimates there are more than 60,000 acres of wild rice among more than 700 lakes --the most of any state in the country.

When you're out and about this fall, look for authentic Minnesota wild rice at gift shops, grocers, and up-north convenience markets. Buying a bag or more helps support this $2 million crop and celebrates one of the state's best culinary treasures. Add wild rice's rich, nutty flavor to salads, casseroles, side dishes, breakfast entrees and Minnesota's famous wild rice soup.

More on wild rice: Best places to dine on wild rice plus two excellent wild rice recipes for the holidays.