Wild rice is also called “water rice” – and that is a first indication that it is not real rice. However, the sweet grass seeds, which are considered a delicacy, also have a downside. You can find out more here.
Wild rice: fruits instead of grains
Wild rice grains look like rice, they are cooked like rice, and the name suggests that they are a wild form of rice. But botanically, wild rice is not a “real” rice variety. In contrast to normal rice (Oryza genus), which is cultivated on fields and terraces, wild rice (Zizanie genus) grows on the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds. That is why it is also called “water rice”.
Wild rice is a genus of plants in the grass family. While rice plants produce cereal grains, with wild rice we eat the fruits of some sweet grasses, which can be prepared like conventional grain rice.
Demand from Europe is displacing tradition
Wild rice originally comes from North America and East China. Wild rice has played an important role in the diet of the Chippewa, a North American indigenous people, for thousands of years. They still harvest it in the traditional way: in late summer, canoes go into the shallow water where the wild rice grasses grow. The stalks are pulled into the boat with sticks and tapped lightly, causing the fruit to fall to the bottom of the canoe. If the stalks snap back again, more fruit will fall into the water. These ensure the existence of the grasses, because they provide the basis for the next harvest.
The paddy rice is now also exported to Europe, where it is marketed as a delicacy. Growing demand has led to higher-yielding hybrid varieties being grown extensively on aquatic plantations in North America. There are also efforts to achieve a higher crop yield with a wild rice variety where the fruit no longer falls out. These industrially bred varieties have little to do with the original wild rice. In addition, the traditional cultivation and harvesting methods of the Chippewa cannot keep up with these new methods, which is why the indigenous group has to fear a loss of income.
Taste and preparation of wild rice
Immediately after harvesting, wild rice still has a water content of 40 percent and the fruits are initially green-brown. They only get their typical dark color after they have been dried and roasted. The grains are then dehulled, i.e. freed from the outer shell. Wild rice is still whole grain rice because it is not husked or milled. Its dark appearance makes it visually easy to confuse with black rice, but the latter is a real rice variety.
In terms of taste, wild rice offers a smoky, nutty aroma that is significantly heartier than the relatively neutral taste of white rice.
Here are a few tips for preparation:
Wild rice swells a lot. To cook it, you need about three to four times the amount of liquid. Salt is added at the end.
Cooking time is up to 50 minutes, or until about half the seeds have popped open.
In mixtures with other types of rice, broken seeds are often used, reducing their cooking time to that of regular rice. It only takes about half an hour to prepare.
Nutritional values of wild rice at a glance
The nutritional values for 100 grams of wild rice are as follows:
Energy: 385 kcal
Egg white: 14.73 g
Fat: 1.08g
Carbohydrates: 74.90 g
A comparison with other types of rice shows that wild rice has slightly more calories than types of rice such as jasmine rice (350 kcal per 100 grams) or basmati rice (354 kcal per 100 grams), but also provides up to twice as much protein. Parboiled rice, for example, only has 7.3 grams of protein.
In addition, wild rice contains many antioxidants, as well as some minerals, including iron and phosphorus.
