Manoomin — the sacred hand-harvested wild rice of the Great Lakes Ojibwe — simmered until the dark grains split and curl, then tossed with onion, dried cranberries, and toasted sunflower seeds. Nutty, chewy, and smoky.
Wild rice — manoomin, 'the good berry' — is the sacred grain hand-harvested from canoes by the Ojibwe and Anishinaabe of the Great Lakes. A cornerstone of their foodways and ceremonies, it is gathered as it has been for centuries.
Forkful of wild rice pilaf and the dark grains are chewy and split open, nutty and faintly smoky, dotted with sweet-tart cranberries and crunchy sunflower seeds. Bite: deeply nutty and earthy with a satisfying chew quite unlike soft white rice, sweetness from the cranberries and crunch from the seeds. The sacred grain of the Great Lakes, made a feast side.
True wild rice is the seed of an aquatic grass, not rice; long simmering bursts the tough dark hull so the grains curl and reveal their pale, nutty interior. Toasting the sunflower seeds and using dried cranberries are Indigenous Great-Lakes pairings of crunch and tart-sweet against the smoky grain.
Variations
With mushrooms. With maple. With bison. With hazelnuts. As a porridge. With duck.
On the Palate
Where Wild Rice Pilaf sits in the Native American flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 5How it's made
8 steps · 20 min active + 40 min waiting
- 13 min
Rinse 200 g wild rice well.
- 243 min
Simmer in plenty of salted water 40-45 min until the grains split and curl.
Watch outDon't pull it early — wild rice is ready only when the dark hulls burst and the grains curl open to show the pale inside.
- 33 min
Drain off any excess water.
- 46 min
Meanwhile soften chopped onion in butter.
- 54 min
Toast a handful of sunflower seeds until golden.
Watch outToast the sunflower seeds just to golden and fragrant — a shade past that and they turn bitter fast.
- 63 min
Toss the rice with the onion, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries.
- 72 min
Season with salt; finish with a little more butter.
- 82 min
Serve warm as a side.
