How to properly and tasty cook wild (black) rice

Black rice is a rather exotic product for Russian cuisine. Therefore, in most cases, the features and subtleties of its preparation are not studied by housewives. Further in the material we will look at how and what can be prepared from black rice.

First, let's look at some important tips.

Useful cooking tips

Just like the familiar white rice, black rice is prepared in an almost identical way.

The following list will help you choose a quality product and properly process it before use:

When purchasing this cereal, pay attention to the composition. Quite often you can find a mixture of black and brown rice. This is not a bad indicator of the product, it’s just that dishes made from it will be somewhat less healthy in terms of the set of useful components.
Before cooking black rice, be sure to soak it in cool water overnight.

Also keep in mind that when cooking, the dishes may become stained, so think carefully about their choice.
To cook soaked rice, boil water (1:3) and pour in the cereal. Next, cook over low heat for 60 minutes. Once it is ready, turn off the heat and leave for 15 minutes without stirring.
How to deliciously cook black rice “Southern Night” or another brand? Add sesame seeds, nuts, legumes or Japanese sauce to the finished dish.
This cereal is best served as a side dish for meat, fish or vegetable dishes.
It is used to make salads, appetizers and even desserts.

Next, you should figure out how to properly prepare cereals in various ways.

What are the benefits of wild rice?

The benefits and harms of wild rice for the body are determined by the properties of the chemical elements it contains.

The presence of isoleucine among amino acids promotes the active production of proteins in the body. This acid is necessary for metabolic processes that provide positive changes at the cellular level. In combination with valine, it inhibits the production of serotonin.

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Both amino acids are involved in the process of active formation of necessary hormones; their properties increase in combination with enzymatic compounds.

Folic acid is especially beneficial for pregnant women. A side dish of black cereal for the main dish will replace almost half of the required daily amount of folic acid.

The benefits of magnesium for the body lie in the supply of energy to cells. It is indicated for use by those people who experience increased stress. Its deficiency causes harm to the body, which can manifest itself in limb cramps and the development of anemia.

Zinc has beneficial properties: participates in the synthesis of necessary hormones and helps normalize metabolism.

How to cook Southern Night black rice in a slow cooker?

This method also requires pre-processing of the cereal. For this:

just as always, soak the cereal overnight;
pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the multicooker container;
load the cereal;
Sprinkle everything with salt and pour in cold water;
close the multicooker and set the “Porridge” mode; it usually lasts 40 minutes.

Now that we have discussed ways to deliciously cook wild black rice, we can move on to recipes for dishes based on it.

Cooking on the stove

Boiling black rice is not as difficult as it seems from the very beginning. To do this, take a saucepan with a thick bottom and walls, pour a sufficient amount of filtered water into it, and then bring to a boil over maximum heat. Next, you need to put thoroughly washed wild black rice into the boiling liquid. After boiling again, the heat must be reduced. Cook exotic cereals under a closed lid for about 25-27 minutes. In this case, you need to add a little additional salt to the pan.

Once the rice is completely soft, place it in a colander and rinse well under cold water. If you expect to serve it immediately as a side dish, then after washing we recommend scalding it with boiling water.

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Black rice porridge

The simplest recipe. It is performed as follows:

soak rice overnight and rinse before using;
Place the cereal in a saucepan with salted cold water;
bring the contents of the pot to a boil;
immediately after put the fire on low and cover with a lid;
cook the porridge for 40 minutes until the water is completely absorbed;
as soon as this happens, without removing the lid, remove the dishes and leave for 25 minutes;
then just stir the resulting porridge.

This method is also the answer to the question: “How to cook black rice as a side dish?”

Rules and features of product preparation

In order for the final product to be crumbly and not look like porridge, you need to properly cook the rice mixture or separate component. If processing is carried out in the traditional way, it should look like this:

Place the pre-cooked rice in a large saucepan, then fill it with cold water. The ratio of dry product to liquid is 1 to 5. After this, put the pan on the fire, turn it on to medium power.

Tip: Although wild rice that will be used as a side dish can be boiled in vegetable or chicken broth, like all other types of product, it is better not to do this. The end result will lose its unique nutty flavor and the cereal will turn into the most ordinary mass.

Even before the water boils, you need to stir the product several times. After boiling, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Cook the mixture for half an hour. If the mixture has not been pre-soaked, it can absorb a lot of water, no need to be surprised by this.
There is no need to stir the mixture during boiling. After the fire is turned off, you need to let it brew for a quarter of an hour without removing the lid.
When all the manipulations have been completed, mix the wild rice thoroughly but gently so that all the grains are separated and the composition becomes airy.

It is worth considering that ready-made black rice, no matter how much you wash it, can stain the surface of ceramic or enamel dishes. The finished product acquires a pronounced purple or brown tint, which indicates its high quality and correct processing.

Recipe

Now let’s figure out how to deliciously cook “Southern Night” black rice. It’s worth starting with the grain itself:

It is better to soak the rice overnight, and before using, rinse it in cold water with salt and cook for 60 minutes.
The eggs are hard boiled. Once cooked, cool and cut into small cubes.
Place tuna in a bowl and mash well with a fork.
Divide the onion into half rings.
Also cut the cucumbers into small cubes.
Before you can cook delicious black rice, you need to make the right dressing. To do this, mix olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt and spices in a separate bowl. Mix.
Once the rice is cooked, rinse thoroughly.
Place a handful of arugula on a plate and top with rice, tuna, vegetables and eggs. Add salt to everything and mix carefully so as not to crumble.

Arancini with shrimp and mozzarella

Let's look at another interesting way to cook black rice deliciously. For it you will need:

300 grams of the specified cereal;
onion head;
2 tablespoons cornstarch;
3 tablespoons water;
garlic clove;
100 grams of mozzarella cheese, preferably in the form of balls;
50 grams of sesame seeds;
1 chicken egg;
2 tablespoons olive oil.

Cooking method

Always soak black rice overnight before cooking anything. After that:

Rinse the cereal, pour into a pan with cold water. Boil and cook over low heat.
Remove the shell from the shrimp, remove the intestines and rinse. Once peeled, cut into very small pieces.
Heat a spoonful of olive oil in a frying pan, crush the garlic and add the seafood. Fry for 5 minutes.
Finely chop the onion.

Heat another tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and fry the vegetable.
Once the rice is cooked, let it cool slightly.
Dissolve starch in water and add to cereal. Once it has cooled, mix it together with the onions.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg.
Scatter the sesame seeds in an even layer on the plate.
Line a baking tray with special paper.
Next, take a small handful of cereal and make a kind of bowl out of it. Place seafood and a ball of mozzarella inside. Make sure you don't end up with a slide.
Using a second handful of rice, cover the filling and carefully shape into a ball.
Dip the workpiece in the egg and roll in sesame seeds and place on a baking sheet.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and cook the dish for 20 minutes. Then serve immediately.

Recommendations

Cooked black rice looks delicious, but can stain dishes.
The product goes well with seeds and nuts, as well as beans or lentils.
It is a good substitute for noodles or its white relative in salads.
It is used as a filling for baked poultry. In this case, the cereal is prepared in the usual way, mixed with breadcrumbs and seasonings, and placed inside the bird.
Japanese tamari sauce and sesame seeds will help enhance the taste.
For dessert, mix rice with cream, add cinnamon and sugar and make pudding.
If you heat the oil in a frying pan, add chopped vegetables, add cooked black rice, stir - you will get a delicious lazy pilaf.

Preparation

Don't forget: before you cook delicious black rice, you need to soak it in cold water for 8 hours. After that:

Place the cereal in a saucepan and cover with clean cold water. Bring the contents to a boil and then leave to cook until fully cooked.
At this time, peel the carrots and peppers and cut them into strips.

Soak the tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes, then transfer to a bowl with ice. Leave there for another 5 minutes and remove the skin. After that, divide them into medium-sized pieces.
Divide the chicken fillet into small slices and add water along with the carrots. Everything needs to be cooked over medium heat for 3 minutes. Then strain the broth and add tomatoes to it.
Place the previously selected chicken and carrots into a frying pan with melted butter. Fry both ingredients until slightly crusty.
Next, add pepper and soy sauce. Continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Add sesame seeds, stir well and turn off the heat.
By this time the rice should have been cooked. Place it separately and let it cool slightly. In the meantime, hard boil 2 eggs.
After this, pour the broth into a plate, add the fried rice, place half an egg and finely chopped green onions on top.

Wild (black) rice benefits and harm to the body

Tsitsaniya, or Zizania, or Water rice, or Wild rice, or Indian rice, or Canadian rice (lat. Zizania

)" is a genus of herbaceous plants in the Poaceae
family
. Contains 4 types of Wiki

In fact, calling this cereal rice is not entirely correct. This is water tsitsania - a herbaceous plant from the Poaceae family. Its stems can grow up to 3 meters in height, and if found in nature, an unlucky observer would rather call it a giant swamp grass. It is the grains of this plant, related to ordinary rice, that are so popular today.

Tsitsania is grown in much smaller quantities than rice, and therefore has a high cost (although the good reputation of the product certainly plays a role here). Despite belonging to different species, the composition of rice and tsitsaniya grains is almost the same, only the proportions differ. The two main food varieties of wild rice are called "Chinese" and "Thai", but they are almost identical.

Composition and beneficial properties of wild (black) rice

The chemical composition of this cereal includes mineral compounds of magnesium, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, selenium and zinc, as well as vitamins B1-B6, A, C, E, K and PP. But the greatest value is represented by numerous amino acids. They improve the condition of all internal organ systems, help strengthen the immune system, and stabilize metabolic processes. The lack of two important amino acids - asparagine and glutamine - is easily compensated by adding beans, lentils or chickpeas to cereals.

In fact, a mixture of brown and wild rice with this vegetable side dish saturates the body with almost all the nutrients necessary for good health.

Photo: wild black rice

This is an excellent product for those who engage in intense and prolonged physical activity. It promotes rapid recovery through protein and protein, and also stabilizes the nervous system. Due to the high content of dietary fiber, this cereal, when consumed systematically, helps to normalize the functioning of the digestive system. Wild black rice is often recommended for people with excess body weight and abnormal metabolism.

Nutritional value and calorie content of wild rice

The calorie content of raw wild rice is approximately 330 kcal per 100 grams, but, of course, no one eats it in this form. During the cooking process, the grains fill with water and increase in size, so the chemical composition is noticeably diluted with water.

Calorie content of wild rice

Calorie content is reduced to 101 kcal per 100 grams, carbohydrate content to 21.34 g, protein to 4 g, and fat to 0.34 g.

How and how much to cook wild rice

Due to the fact that the grains of this cereal are not subjected to any processing during production, they remain very hard.
Therefore, the rice must first be soaked in cold water. The easiest way is to leave it in liquid overnight; 5-6 hours for softening is enough. Before cooking wild rice, you should be patient, because it takes at least half an hour to cook it well. On average, 40 minutes are enough, during which the grains become 4 times larger. To make it soft and crumbly, but not stick together, you need to take 3 servings of salted water for 1 serving of rice.

Express recipe for cooking wild rice

If it is not possible to soak the grains well before cooking, you can use an express recipe:

Rinse the grains.
Pour boiling water so that the water completely covers the cereal.
Close the dish with a lid and wrap it with a thick cloth.
After an hour, drain the water, rinse the cereal again and start cooking.

Brown and wild rice mixtures

Today in stores you can often find packages of mixed rice, where brown, unpolished or steamed grains are added to the wild grain. For example, a mixture of brown and wild rice.

Photo: a mixture of brown and wild rice This mixing allows you to kill two birds with one stone: make a healthy product more accessible to the buyer and balance the vitamin and mineral base. Cooking a mixture of wild and brown rice is carried out in the same way as in the recipe described above, because both grains need to be soaked and cooked for a long time. True, some manufacturers process the cereal in advance, and on the packaging they write how long it should be cooked and in what amount of water. Usually, take 3 parts of boiling water for 1 part of grains and cook for about half an hour.

Contraindications

Why wild rice is good: The benefits of eating wild rice are extensive, and the harmful effects are virtually eliminated. Indeed, this type of rice cereal has exactly the same possible indications as its analogues. First of all, those who suffer from constipation or digestive problems should avoid eating large amounts of wild rice. To avoid this, experts recommend combining it in your diet with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Wild rice flour in cosmetology: face mask

Although grinding such an expensive raw material as wild rice into flour may seem wasteful, there are no barriers for women in the struggle for beauty. This flour actually has suitable properties for use as part of a lifting mask. To prepare it you only need 1 chicken egg and 1 tbsp. l rice flour and sour cream. Procedure:

Boil the egg and grind into a deep bowl.
Add sour cream. If your skin is dry, you need to choose a product with a high oil content. Otherwise, acidified sour cream will do.
Add rice flour and mix everything thoroughly (you can use a coffee grinder to grind the flour).
The result should be a mask with the consistency of thick sour cream, otherwise it will drain from the skin.
Using a cotton pad or brush, apply the product to the skin in a dense layer on the face, neck and, if desired, décolleté.
It is convenient to lie down with your head thrown back and remain in this position for a third of an hour until the mask hardens.
After this, the mixture should be washed off with warm water, and makeup cream should be applied to cleansed skin.

Use of wild rice in cooking and dietary nutrition

Nutritionists focus on one key difference between wild or brown rice and white milled grains. The fact is that the latter is saturated with so-called fast carbohydrates. They are considered one of the main culprits of excess weight. This happens because carbohydrates are absorbed very quickly, increasing glucose levels, but they also quickly decrease and after a short period you feel hungry again.

Due to the fact that wild rice is not heavily processed, the carbohydrates in its composition remain in a “complex” form. Therefore, absorption occurs slowly, sugar levels rise and fall slowly, which gives a surge of energy and a feeling of fullness for several hours.

The coarse dietary fiber of wild rice essentially mechanically cleanses the intestines of toxins and gently irritates its walls, increasing blood flow. Therefore, wild rice helps improve obesity, overweight and digestive difficulties.

Photo: how to cook wild rice

Wild rice has virtually no competitors among cereals in terms of the diversity of its vitamin and mineral base. This, combined with a considerable amount of protein and “slow” carbohydrates, makes it an excellent basis for diets of varying intensity.

Cooking

First you need to prepare the cereal. Everything according to the standard scheme:

Soak the rice overnight and rinse before using. Next, pour it into a saucepan with cold water, bring the contents to a boil and continue cooking over low heat for 60 minutes.
Then pour in the egg and process everything with a blender until a uniform mass is obtained.
Place in a separate bowl and add milk, butter, vanillin and cocoa. Now all the ingredients need to be mixed using a whisk. Carry out the procedure until all the lumps disappear.
Heat the pan well and immediately turn the heat to low. You need to bake small pancakes.
Once the entire batch is ready, put it in the refrigerator for a few hours.
During this time, mix cottage cheese, raisins and cream in a separate bowl. Beat the ingredients with a blender until smooth.
Next, simply grease the top side of each pancake with the resulting mixture, stacking them on top of each other. As soon as the filling and pancakes are finished, put the resulting cake in the refrigerator or serve immediately.

Wild Rice Recipes

Of the variety of useful ways to prepare rice, the most popular are boiling and baking. All recipes are designed for the finished product.

Wild rice pudding

The recipe is very common. It tastes significantly different from the white cereal version of the same name, and the benefits of consuming it are higher. Baking also helps preserve the main beneficial properties of the product.

For pudding take:

black rice – 100 g;
low fat milk – 200 – 300 ml;
salt, sugar, vanillin, berries - to taste;
butter or vegetable oil.

Rice is boiled in water until the grains are soft, then milk is poured in and boiled until viscous. During the cooking process, add salt, sugar, and vanillin to taste. After the pudding is ready, it is poured with berry syrup prepared in advance and decorated with fresh berries. This dessert is recommended for those who follow a healthy diet, but want to treat themselves to something sweet.

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Wild rice in a slow cooker

Modern technology brings benefits in the kitchen, making it easier to prepare many dishes. Cooking wild rice in a slow cooker will take about 50 minutes after traditional soaking. Vegetable oil is poured into the bottom of the device container, washed rice is poured in, water is added in a ratio of 1:3, salt is added, the lid is closed, and cooked in the “pilaf” mode.

Cooking

Now we will analyze in detail the entire process of implementing this recipe. To start:

Soak the rice overnight. Before use, rinse in cold water and cook until fully cooked.
Wash the beets with a brush, add water and leave to cook until fully cooked.

At this time, clean the squid and cut them into strips. Then send it to boil in salted water. Once cooked, pour into a colander.
Cucumbers are cut into small cubes.
The onion and dill are finely chopped.
Quail eggs are hard-boiled. As soon as they are ready, peel them and divide them into halves.
The finished beets need to be cooled and peeled. After this, it is passed through a medium grater and filled with broth and lemon juice (or vinegar).
Now pour the beetroot into the plate. Add quail eggs and two tablespoons of rice to it. On top of the dish is decorated with squid, chopped herbs and sour cream.

Wild rice calories and nutritional value

Athletes and people who strictly control the foods they consume are concerned about the calorie content of wild rice

, as well as how much fat, protein and carbohydrates it contains.

Calorie content

100 g of boiled wild rice - 101 Kcal
Proteins
per 100 g of product - 3.99 g
Carbohydrates
per 100 g of product - 21.34 g
Fat
per 100 g of product - 0.34 g

Below is a more detailed table

The rice diet consists of eating wild rice for two weeks. During this diet, you are allowed to eat vegetables, fruits, herbs and vegetable oils. You need to eat three times a day and eat rice each time; you determine the serving size yourself, since you should not starve or overeat. You also choose the form in which you consume vegetables, since they can be eaten fresh or in salads, boiled or steamed. You can also cook wild rice with vegetables in a slow cooker, because during cooking it retains all the vitamins that are so needed during a diet.

Now it is difficult to say how many kilograms a person can lose with this diet. After all, everyone determines the portion size themselves; on this diet you can lose 8 or 5 kg, you just need to adjust your diet.

A huge plus of the wild rice diet is the absence of hunger. You can prepare a variety of dishes with rice and vegetables, so you won't find the rice diet boring. It is also medicinal, as it is often prescribed to people suffering from gastritis. The disadvantage of this diet is the lack of meat and fish in the diet. But two weeks on this diet will not affect your health.

Cooking

Now let's look at the implementation algorithm. First of all, you need to do the following:

Black rice is soaked overnight. Before use, rinse and fill with cold water and bring to a boil. Next, you need to leave the product to cook over low heat for 60 minutes. Once it is cooked, cool it.

Pour sugar into a frying pan, add vinegar and salt. Heat everything and stir until the sugar crystals are completely dissolved.
Then just put the cooked rice in there and stir again.
Boiled squid should be cut into thin strips.
Divide both sheets of nori into halves. Place rice on each layer in half a centimeter.
Next, smooth and compact it with wet hands.
Place a piece of squid on one edge of the sheet.
Next, carefully roll the workpiece into a tight roll.