Wild Rice Pilaf
Prep Time: 25 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Serves: 6
An easy side dish, Wild Rice Pilaf, is delicious (and colorful!) for a casual weeknight dinner or an elegant spread. The addition of pimento peppers, cranberries and pecans elevates rice pilaf to something really delicious!
My preferred brand of wild rice blend is RiceSelect “Royal Blend.” It is a blend of four rice varieties.
Be sure you season your vegetable-rice-stock mixture before placing the lid on your skillet to cook. All these ingredients will absorb the stock’s flavor, so it has to taste really, really good. This recipe doesn’t have any uncooked meat, so tasting as you go is safe to do. You don’t want to have to salt at the end of your cooking process; it won’t be as flavorful.
I have peas in my recipe, not only for color, but I like the flavor they bring to a rice pilaf. I would use fresh or frozen. Canned peas have a canned taste to them, in my opinion, but you can use them if you wish.
I am a huge fan of garlic. I used a tablespoon in my recipe, but you are welcome to dial that back, if you’d like. I wonder if there is a candle made to smell like garlic sauteing in butter?!
You could use other dried fruits, such as currants, golden raisins, or cherries in place of the cranberries. Dried cranberries are always easy to find in my area year round. Even though I love cherries in this dish for my husband and myself, I went with the craisins for the actually written up recipe.
The instructions below are for a stovetop, but I have included rice cooker instructions in the Notes section below the recipe.
Enjoy!
Wild Rice Pilaf
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup carrots, small dice
- 1 cup onion, small dice
- 1 cup celery, small dice
- 1 tablespoon garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 cup diced pimento peppers, or diced roasted red peppers
- zest of 1 small lemon, optional
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock, or vegetable stock
- 1 1/2 cups wild rice blend
- kosher salt or sea salt, to taste
- freshly-cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries, or cherries
- 1/2 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
- 1/4 cup Italian parsley, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, see Notes
Instructions
- In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter with the oil.
- Once melted, add the carrots, onion, and celery. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Sauté until softened and caramelized, approximately 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (You can cook the vegetables for a shorter amount of time, just until softened, if you’d prefer.)
- Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn.
- Add the pimento peppers, lemon zest, stock and rice. Stir to combine. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. You want your mixture to have a lot of flavor since your rice will be absorbing this liquid.
- Place a tight-fitting lid on the skillet and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is fully cooked. Pull the rice off the heat and let stand for 5 minutes, still covered.
- Add the peas, cranberries, pecans, parsley, and thyme. Gently toss together, taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. The peas will thaw in the very hot rice.
- Serve warm.
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