Native American Recipe: Wild Rice + Sweet Potato (2024)

FAQs

How did Native Americans cook wild rice? ›

The Ojibwa prepared wild rice a number of ways. For example they used the rice to make gem cakes, duck and fowl stuffing, steamed rice puffs (eaten with sugar and cream for breakfast), cooked with deer fat and maple sugar, or boiled with rabbit excrement.

When the explorer Christopher Columbus landed on our shores in 1492, the Native Americans were growing sweet potatoes. That's almost 300 years before the United States even became a country!

Manoomin (wild rice) is the only grain native to North America, and it is viewed as essential to the distinct identity of the Ojibwe people (Nesper 2015). The relationship between the Ojibwe and manoomin is strongly associated with a land ethic that places the human as a part of nature.

Wild rice (Zizania spp.) is a delicious, ancient grain that has been harvested by Indigenous people in North America for millennia. Wild rice, also known by its Ojibwe name, manoomin, is an aquatic grass that's only distantly related to domesticated rice.

Step 1: Rinse the Rice

Pour a cup of wild rice into a mesh sieve and give it a good rinse. This will rid the rice of any starch that's lingering on the outside of the grain. This extra starch can make your rice—be it wild or any other kind—gummy once it cooks.

You do not have to soak wild rice before cooking it! We wanted there to be as few steps to cooking wild rice as possible. That being said, people soak their wild rice to reduce the cooking time, so if you have the time feel free to soak the wild rice. The finished texture will remain the same.

Wild rice is a hearty and nourishing alternative to white rice or brown rice. Each piece features a long grain that takes longer to cook than most other varieties, so it's best served al dente with a gentle, toothsome crunch.

Because of its unique harvesting needs (learn more about it here), wild rice is significantly more expensive than brown rice. In fact, it's one of the most expensive grains. In Washington State, as of January 2023, wild rice costs $5.16 per pound and brown rice costs 80 cents a pound.

white rice. When comparing wild, brown, and white rice for nutritional purposes, wild rice comes out on top. Wild rice has less calories, less fat, and less carbohydrates than both brown and white rice. It is also a complete protein with all nine essential amino acids.

Wild rice once grew far and wide across the upper Midwest, but its yields have been dropping for decades due to lakeshore development, pollution, and both warmer air and water temperatures—wild rice likes harsh winters.

What state has the most wild rice? ›

A Closer Look: Wild rice was a staple food for the Sioux and Chippewa Indians. Minnesota's lakes and rivers produce most of the millions of pounds of wild rice harvested annually in Canada and the United States.

Despite its name, wild rice is not rice at all. Although it is the seed of an aquatic grass like rice, it's not directly related to it. This grass grows naturally in shallow freshwater marshes and along the shores of streams and lakes. There are four different species of wild rice.

Before the electric rice cooker was invented, rice was cooked on a kamado, a large stove built in a corner of the kitchen. To boil rice on a kamado, first a fire is started using firewood. Next, a pot containing the rice and water is placed over the fire.

Meat, fish, and shellfish were roasted, and ashcakes made from ground-up grains and tubers could be baked in the hearth. Shellfish, berries, and nuts could be eaten raw. Boiling food into stews was, for a time, more difficult.

When they wanted to harvest the rice, they would take a canoe through the rice, untie the bundles and shake the rice into the canoe. Tied rice was heavier, and they were able to harvest almost all of the rice at one time.

That being said, wild rice looks and cooks like rice. Similar to cooking brown rice, it takes longer to simmer on the stovetop because it's a whole grain. You need to simmer until the hull splits and gets tender, which usually takes about an hour.