This recipe is courtesy of our friend Olivia at Liv In The Kitchen, a Minnesota food blog dedicated to flavorful, easy recipes supporting a healthy lifestyle.
Who doesn’t love a hearty bowl of chicken wild rice soup?! That’s what inspired me to make this simple, healthier wild rice and mushroom recipe — it makes for a hearty main or fulfilling side. Thankfully R&R Cultivation grows, cultivates, and sells their local mushrooms at a variety of indoor markets and online during the cruel Minnesota winter season. I’m lucky to have a great partnership with them!
I thoroughly enjoyed developing this recipe on a day off, no one home, music on, sweats on, and both spatula and camera in-hand. Though my terrific roommate and boyfriend, Peter, edited these photos with his magic talents, I was the one calling the shots in the moment, as he was stuck at work. If I do say so myself, this recipe and the photos turned out pretty good…
Wild Rice and Wild Mushrooms - 2 as a Main, 4 as a Side
Ingredients
1/2# oyster mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon ghee
2 cups wild rice, cooked
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup toasted and chopped pecans
Salt and pepper to taste
Steps
Cook your wild rice based off of the package’s instructions. I chose to cook mine in vegetable stock to give it a further boost of flavor.
While the rice cooks, clean your oyster mushrooms with a damp paper towel if needed. Remove the stems and slice thin. Heat a cast-iron skillet on high heat. Once hot, add your ghee and melt completely.
Add your oyster mushrooms and toss to coat in the ghee. Once the ghee is evenly distributed, leave the mushrooms completely undisturbed for 5 minutes. This will allow them to get a nice brown, caramelized color on them. Follow with an additional 10 to 15 minutes of cooking, tossing every so often.
Turn the heat to low and add your garlic powder, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Add the apple cider vinegar and deglaze the skillet — this will release all of the browned, tasty bits and give the dish more flavor.
Add the mushrooms to your pot of cooked wild rice and stir in the toasted pecans. Plate and serve immediately to enjoy warm, or leave to cool then store in the fridge for an hour to serve cold. Dried cranberries would make an exceptional topping here :) Enjoy!
