Split Pea & Wild Rice Stew

We've had a few days of warm weather and it was easy to forget that it was November and we really weren't meant to be wearing shorts... So, mother nature decided to bring us back to reality this morning with some cooler weather. What better day to make a hearty, filling vegan stew?


Split Pea with Wild Rice

1/3 c chicos, prepared (see below) (optional)
2 Tbs canola oil
1 small onion, diced
3 small or 2 large carrots, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
1/2 c wood parched wild rice, rinsed
1 c split peas, rinsed and sorted
1 tsp hickory powder
2 tsp Massels or other vegan stock powder
1 tsp salt (more to taste)
1 1/2 c cooked lentils (optional - about 1 can)
2 tsp Bacon Salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
5 c total water


In a large Dutch oven, saute the onions in the oil until translucent. Add the carrots and saute for about a minute. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds.

Add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer.
Simmer covered for 25 minutes up to 40 minutes until rice is cooked and the split peas have the texture that you like them to have.

Taste for salt and add more if it's needed.

Serve with croutons or vegan parmesan cheese. I used Calbee's Sugarsnap Pea Crisps (those things are addictive...) and crusty bread slices. Only the plain 'original' snaps are vegan.

Need more heat? For this dish, I recommend 1/2 - 1 tsp Aji Amarillo chile powder for some heat and a citrusy taste. Or add 1/2 - 1 tsp chile de arbol powder for pure heat.

Wood parched wild rice. My favorite wood parched wild rice is from Farm Next Door . The rice used this particular night was 'standard grade' from KC's Best Wild Rice

Note Preparing chicos. Chicos are corn kernels dried by smoking in NM. To prepare, soak them overnight in clean water. Pressure cook them for about 40 minutes, using the soaking water. If you don't have a pressure cooker, simmer them in a pot for about an hour using the soaking water. Use all the cooking liquid as part of total water called for in the recipe.

Wild Rice Steamed Buns

Chinese steamed buns have to be one of the best foods on the planet. When I first went vegetarian completely, I had given up everything non-vegetarian I ate for 6 months before I was able to give up steamed roast pork buns for good... The place on Lygon St. in Carlton (Melbourne) where I ate them is no longer there, but I'll never forget those buns.

Making buns takes time but isn't difficult. Most of the time involved is waiting around for the dough to rise, and that doesn't require the presence of the cook. Personally, I get bored kneading dough, so have adapted my recipe to use a bread machine instead. You can do it by hand by kneading the dough and letting the dough rise in a greased bowl instead, but I'll take the easy way out.

Given my recent obsession with wild rice, I decided to make a steamed bun using wild rice. These buns are not intended to be a starter course like most Chinese buns are. These are meant to go with a meal as the bread course.

You can, of course, eat them with soy sauce, fresh grated ginger and even some wasabi to cleanse your sinuses, but they are meant to be eaten as a bread.

From the photos, you'll see that my buns don't end up incredibly white like the ones in the Chinese restaurant. In these particular buns, the sauce bleeds through a little, but even if it didn't, that perfect whiteness would not be there. I don't know how they do that, but I do know these taste great even if they aren't so pretty! I use kamut flour to make the sponge because I feel it adds more flavor. However, it is also more yellowish in color than white, so will definitely affect the color of the finished buns.

Wild Rice Steamed Buns

Ingredient list:

For the sponge:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour I use kamut flour here
1/3 cup warm water

For the dough:

1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (needs 1/4 c more)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

For the filling:

1/4 c dried mushrooms
2 c boiling water
1 tsp salt
1 T butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 serrano chile, minced
1 T flour
3/4 c cooked wild rice
1 1/4 c cooked brown rice

18 - 20 pieces of wax paper approx 3 inches square


Making these steamed buns requires 5 basic steps:

1. Make sponge


2. Make dough


3. Make filling


4. Form buns


5. Steam buns

Make the sponge:

In the pan of your breadmaker, add the first 4 ingredients, mix and set aside for 20 minutes.

Make the dough:

After 20 minutes, the sponge will be bubbly. Add the next 5 ingredients (NOT the baking soda).
Turn your breadmaker on the dough cycle, and let it run for 15 minutes or so, scraping down the sides if needed. The dough will be very sticky but will eventually form a smooth ball
Turn the breadmaker off, and let the dough sit for 1 1/2 - 2 hours to rise. It will triple in size at least. Make filling while waiting.

Make filling:

Soak the mushrooms in boiling water for 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and drain the remaining liquid through a coffee filter into a measuring cup until you have accumulated 3/4 c of liquid.

In a 10 inch skillet, melt the butter.
Chop the soaked mushrooms into very small pieces
Add the mushrooms, garlic and chile to the butter and cook until the garlic is tender.
Sprinkle the flour over the top of the mixture and saute a minute.
Add the reserved mushroom stock, stirring well to mix it all in.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
When the mixture thickens, add the rice, turn off heat and mix well.
Set aside until needed.

When dough is ready:

Sprinkle some flour on your work surface, and then scatter the baking soda over that. Flour your hands and remove the dough from the bread pan.

Knead the dough gently on the board, forming it into a log about 18 inches long.

Cut the log in half, then cut each of those into 8-12 pieces.

For each piece, roll lightly in flour and smooth out with your hands to about a 2-3 inch circle.
Holding the circle in the palm of one hand, add 1 to 1/2 tsp of filling.
Gently pull up the sides around the filling.
Bring all the sides to a point, twist to seal, and place seal down on a piece of waxed paper.
Keep at least an inch or two between buns - they expand.

Let the buns rise for about 20 minutes.


Buns Rising in Steamer Pan

Bring water to boil for your steamer.
Add buns to your steamer, making sure they are at least an inch apart from each other and the side.
Steam 15-20 minutes.
Remove from steamer, peel off wax paper and eat.



After Steaming - Buns Expand

Rice - Wild and Not So Wild

Including a simple, delicious recipe for Chile Wild Rice & Poached Eggs




L- hand harvested, wood parched, long grain; M- hand harvested wood parched short grain; R- 'wild rice' from the store


A couple of weeks ago, I bought some 'wild rice' from the local Amish store. I popped it into a pressure cooker at 10 pounds of pressure and checked it after 30 minutes, then 50 minutes. Even at 50 minutes in a pressure cooker, the grains hadn't properly 'exploded' like I was used to seeing. The taste was also much stronger and 'in your face' than I recall wild rice being years ago.

This led me to do some browsing on the net. It didn't take long to discover that there are three distinct ways to approach 'wild rice'. To me, wild rice is meant to be the grains from plants growing wild along rivers and lakes in the northern US and Canada, such as were harvested by native Americans for centuries. But this is no longer the predominant case.

First, there is the readily available, commercially produced 'wild rice'. This isn't wild at all but uses hybrids in paddies to mass produce grains. Grains are machine harvested, then parched at a high temp using propane burners. The result is a very black, very dry product that is relatively inexpensive but requires 50 minutes of cooking or more. And it is mainly grown in California, with other paddies in Minnesota.

Secondly, some native American tribes hand harvest the grain sort of like a co-op in the northern US and Canada, but still parch it using propane burners due to the volume of their harvest. This is an improvement because by hand harvesting can the harvesters get only the ripe grains and leave the green grain behind. But the result, while a step forward, is still black and dry and takes substantial cooking.

Lastly, I discovered, there is hand harvested and wood parched wild rice. This grain is harvested as it ripens, and is parched over wood fires, usually by native Americans. This grain ends up gray (and a bit dusty) but only requires about 18-20 minutes cooking time.

As soon as I could, I ordered some of hand harvested, wood parched wild rice from Minnesota. Two days later, it was in my mailbox and not long after, in my pot... The vendor, Scott Paavola, of The Farm Next Door also kindly included a 1 cup sample of some shorter grain wild rice, harvested from headwaters of the Mississippi instead of the lakes, as the long grain was.

As you can see in the photo above, there is a distinct difference between the 'store' wild rice and the two hand harvested wood parched rices. The store rice has a much stronger aroma, and takes far longer to cook. It's flavor is very strong, and really has to be mixed with brown rice or something to knock down the aggressive flavor. To eat this rice by itself with a spoon would probably not be pleasant.

The wood parched rices have a milder smell, and a nice mild nutty, ricey flavor. When cooked, there are no hard pieces, and the exploded grains are soft but still have some 'tooth' to them.

Before cooking the wood parched grains, they need to be rinsed repeatedly in warm water. I wash them in a metal bowl, slosh it around, and pour off the water and any husks, etc floating on top, and repeat until the water is nearly clear. Then, they go into a covered saucepan at a ratio of about 3.5 parts liquid to 1 part rice. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer. The long grain takes about 18-20 minutes to cook, the short grain about 20-22 minutes. Pour off any remaining liquid, and your rice is ready to go.

Note that we did NOT add any salt. The grains I've tried have an inherent salty taste to them. So, salt lightly and carefully after the grains are cooked. They may not need any salt at all. If you add it at the end and over-salt, you can quickly rinse and drain the rice. This rice can stand up to it.

And, although you can add this to brown or white rice to make it go further, this rices is perfect by itself. When we made the first pot to try it, we planned on mixing it with brown rice for another dish for dinner. We got a spoon and tasted. We tasted again. Tae got a second spoon and we continued 'sampling' until it was all gone... As Alton Brown would say, this was some seriously good eats.

The mild interesting flavor is definitely worth trying. This rice will definitely be in my list of things to always keep on hand.

Chile wild rice & poached eggs

1 Tbs white vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp Earth Balance 'butter'
1 green serrano chile, diced
2/3 c wild rice, cooked (wood parched, of course)
2 eggs

Bring a pot of water to boil and add the vinegar.

Heat a 10 inch pan over medium low heat in a good non-stick pan. Add the oil and butter, and saute the serrano until it softens. Add the rice and begin to heat through.

As the rice is warming, add the eggs to the boiling water. turn off the heat and cover. Allow the eggs to poach for 2-3 minutes or until done.

When the eggs are done, dump the rice mixture onto a warm plate. Remove each egg with a slotted spoon and rest the spoon on a clean tea towel to make sure all the vinegar water is removed. Lay the eggs on top of the rice. Salt and fresh black pepper to taste. Delicious!

Wild Rice Pizza Crust

Sometimes, you just have to use up the stuff in the fridge... Tonight we had some wild rice left over, and it struck me as being a great addition to a spinach and mushroom pizza. However, the wild rice adds a nutty flavor that would complement many vegetable toppings, so I thought I'd pass along this tweaking of a basic pizza dough.

Try it - you'll be glad you did.

Wild Rice Pizza Crust:

3/4 c water
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp agave nectar
1 c ( + maybe 2 Tbs ) kamut flour
1 c all purpose flour
1/4 c cooked wild rice, slightly warmed
2 tsp dry yeast

Dump it all in the breadmaker in order, and push the 'pizza dough' button. If the dough looks a little wet after a few minutes, add the 2 extra tablespoons of kamut flour to the breadmaker.

Note: Wild rice is not really a 'rice'. It is a seed from a water grass. Check the Eden Foods Wild Rice site for more information on growing and harvesting the rice, as well as nutritional information.

We buy our wild rice locally from an Amish grocery. In the interest of science (and our stomachs...) we have ordered some 'wild rice flour' to try. I had never heard of it, but the possibility of including it in savory dishes using flour seem intriguing. We'll report on it in the future.