Wild Rice with Lambsquarters is a dish that is easy to make, taste’s like a scoop of heaven and is absolutely packed with nutrition! Throw it all in your rice cooker, or instant pot and you will have a perfect side dish that’s good for any occasion. This recipe takes about the same amount of time as any rice recipe, but you have to go out and pick some fresh, delicious, and wild Lambsquarters. Which is a synonym of, The Good Old Way!
And for the clean up, try this recipe for Homemade Soap, which is not as hard as you might think!
INGREDIENTS TO MAKE WILD RICE WITH LAMBSQUARTERS
- 1 to 2 cups of fresh Lambsquarters
- 2 cups of rice
- 3 1/2 cups of water
- 1 sweet onion
- 1 teaspoon salt
Given that this is a rice dish, you don’t have to be specific to these ingredients. Keep the rice to water ratio the same, but you can add whatever you want.
Things to try?
- Pepper
- Red pepper flakes
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Smoked paprika
- Curry powder
That is not all! Try it out and let me know what you did and how it went for you.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING WILD RICE?
Firstly, why would you go with wild rice rather than your normal white rice or brown rice?
The answer is quite simple really, wild rice is a variety of 4 grasses, native to North America. One of the 2 most cultivated grains native to North America actually. Which are, wild rice, and corn.
These grasses produce this rice like seed (which is not actually rice) and is far more nutritious than white rice, and even brown rice. It has a far more rich, and nutty flavor than does its far eastern counterparts.
The other super nutritious food that makes this recipe pop is lambsquarters. Lambsquarters is a plant that is also native to the united states. Known as the second most nutritious wild edible plant in the world, this recipe will make your taste buds tingle, and give your belly something that it can be quite happy about.
These delicious lambs quarters are easy to harvest. With every part of the plant being edible including the seeds, they will be a great addition to your arsenal of ingredients! They can easily replace spinach or lettuce in any recipe, and growing in every US state, are an abundant food crop that grows ALL on its own!
HOW TO IDENTIFY THE LAMBSQUARTERS PLANT
To find these lambsquarters, you just have to go outside and look for a few minutes! Likely, they grow in your yard, you just have to know what to look for.
The leaves are this lovely green color, the leaf has many lobes on the sides (lobes are the dips in the edges of the leaf that you see). The new growth of plant has mineral salt from deep in the ground. This mineral salt is what gives the new growth this powdery look.
The leaf is shaped like an arrow head and gets wider as it gets closer to the stem, then cuts back to the stem with a rounded shape.
Harvest the lambsquarters with a pair of kitchen shears, or use your hands to pick leaves off of the entire plant and leave it to grow so you can have food for the rest of the season. I only harvested the entire plants because I was going to mow afterwards and wanted to use as much of the plant as I could.
The younger leaves of lambsquarters have the most tender, and mild flavor. But you can harvest this wild food at any time in its life cycle.
As an added tip to identifying lambs quarters, the back of the leaves will repel water just like duck feathers will, and will not let any water remain on the leaves after being removed from the water.
After harvesting your lambs quarters, you will want to wash the leaves just to make sure they are perfectly clean for your recipe!
Just run some clean, cold water over your leaves and give them a good roughing with your hands to make sure they are nice and clean.
If you are currently in the fall, no worries! Lambsquarters is a close relative of quinoa and the seeds are used in very similar ways. Just use a plastic bag or paper bag, and wrap the seed head with it. Turn it upside down and shake what your mama gave you.
You should acquire a decent yield of seeds from this, and you can use these nutrition packed seeds as an edible grain.
HOW TO MAKE WILD RICE WITH LAMBSQUARTERS
Measure out your wild rice and put it in your instant pot.
Place your washed lambsquarter greens alongside your wild rice.
For some added flavor, I like to put in an onion or 2. For this recipe, I used vadalia sweet onions.
Dice up your sweet onion into approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch squares. Does not have to be perfect!!! Onion is delicious in all quantities and all shapes and sizes.
Add your dices sweet onions in with your rice and lambs quarters.
Add some salt and pepper if you please! I always eye ball salt and pepper, and “accidentally” throw in a little extra pepper most of time.
Add your water to the mix. This is the final step to your ingredients list! How easy was that?
If you harvest your own wild rice, lambsquarters, and grow your own onions, this could be a completely native and organic dish. How far are you willing to go for the best nutrition and food of the freshest quality? Ill be curious to see.
Place your lid on your instant pot, and seal er’ up good!
Make sure your vent is set to the proper setting, and proceed to put your instant pot on the pressure cook setting, and make sure the pressure is set to High!
Set the timer to 30 minutes, and walk away! It is that easy. This recipe will call for a NATURAL RELEASE. Natural release is just how it is said, let the pressure run out on its own.
Don’t open your instant pot until your pressure indicator bar is completely down.
After your instant pot has underwent a natural release, open your lid and Voila!
You will get a rich, nutty, and grainy smell from the wild rice, and a delicious wild green smell from those lambsquarters. When you eat stuff like this, you just know it is going to the right place.
Mix it all up good!
You officially have a recipe that is extremely versatile and can be used as a side dish or a main course.
Not to mention, most of the ingredients will have been sourced from the United States of America! What more do you need than that? The natives would be proud of us for embracing the old way. The same one which they used to thrive.
Of course, I like to add a good sized knob of butter to my finished rice, which is also very American in the best way possible.
You can leave the butter out, but you are definitely not going to regret it if you decide to slap some butter on there.
This is just one of many recipes you can make using wild rice and lambsquarters!
Wild Rice W/ Lambsquarters
Wild Rice with Lambsquarters is a dish that is easy to make, and absolutely packed with nutrition! Throw it all in your rice cooker, or instant pot and you will have a perfect side dish that's good for any occasion or just a great night with the family. This recipe takes about the same amount of time as any rice recipe, but you have to go out and pick some fresh, delicious, and wild lambsquarters. Which is a synonym of, The Good Old Way!
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 cups of fresh Lambsquarters
- 2 cups of rice
- 3 1/2 cups of water
- 1 sweet onion
Instructions
- Harvest and wash Lambsquarters.
- Dice onions
- Place your rice in the instant pot and add diced onions and lambsquarter greens.
- Add water and salt and pepper.
- Cook on high pressure cook for 30 minutes and then let your machine naturally release its pressure.
- The most important step... ENJOY!
This just one of thousands of recipes you can make with lambs quarters! We will be making plenty more and for other recipes using lambsquarters, feel free to check these out… Enjoy!
For more information on the range of lambsquarters visit the Wikipedia sight for Chenopodium album.
I like to put a spin on popular dishes and creating new dishes, using foraged foods.
i hunt, fish, raise many different kinds of animals, and have a wide variety of ways of getting my own food.
i very much enjoy plant, tree, mushroom identification and there uses for food, beverage and medicine.
follow along! as i create dishes using all of the things that grow outside your door.
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[…] Along with this recipe, I made a side dish, the roots of which date back to when the natives harvested wild rice in their canoes, and picked wild Lambsquarters. But has been modernized to be made with an Instant pot! – Wild Rice W/ Lambsquarters […]