Wild Rice: It Isn't Really Rice

Did you know that wild rice is not actually rice, but a grass? Wild rice has been a staple food of aboriginal peoples for hundreds of years. It grows in the cold rivers and lakes of our prairie provinces in Canada and the United States, here in North America, and is harvested by canoe.

Wild Rice Salad Is Nutritious

Wild rice is highly nutritious. It's high in protein, the amino acid lysine and dietary fiber, and low in fat. Nutritional analysis shows wild rice to be second only to oats (quinoa was third) in protein content per 100 calories.^[10] Like true rice, it does not contain gluten. It is also a good source of certain minerals and B vitamins. One cup of cooked wild rice provides 5% or more of the daily value of thiamin, riboflavin, iron, and potassium; 10% or more of the daily value of niacin, b6, folate, magnesium, phosphorus; 15% of zinc; and over 20% of manganese.^{[11] (wikopedia)}

Don't Waste Those Tasty Beet Tops

This rice salad came about because I had already roasted the beets and cooked wild rice from the night before. Roasted beets and wild rice are great flavour matches. They each have their own earthy flavour. Beets are sweetly earthy, where the rice has a nuttiness. I added the slightly bitter tastes of the beet tops, because, why waste that goodness, and walnuts in this salad to counter that sweetness of the beets. Fresh green parsley just plucked from the garden gives the dish a perfect touch of freshness.

Wild rice has a long cooking time, so plan ahead when cooking. It works in this recipe to cook your wild rice while the beets are roasting. Wild rice retains a slightly chewy texture when cooked. It isn't starchy like real rice, so you can make it ahead and store it in the fridge for later. I like to multi-task, and roast some beets when I have something else in the oven, or on the barbecue. Then I can put them in the fridge, as well, ready to go. You can make this for a picnic, barbecue or potluck and it will keep for a couple of days in the fridge.

Good Complex Carbs = Energy

This satisfying wild rice salad is one of my favourite pre-workout lunches. All of those good, complex carbs loaded up in this salad will give you tons of energy to fuel you up for whatever your body is up against!