I just adore grocery shopping. I’m totally like a kid in a candy store! When I found this beautiful organic wild rice mix, I knew today’s quota of food ecstasy is complete!
Golden brown roasted cauliflower spiced with coriander powder, on a bed of creamy, almost risotto like wild rice, with a fresh pop of green from the peas and the warm cumin and paprika, are a match made in culinary heaven.
Ingredients:
Serves 6-8
For the Wild Rice
2 cups wild rice mix
6 1/4 cups water
4 tbsp vegan butter
3 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp paprika + 1 tsp red chilli powder mix (the red chilli powder is optional if you’d like to avoid the spiciness completely)
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup peas (I used frozen peas)
2 tsp kosher coarse salt (adjust per the kind you use)
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro (you can also use basil or parsley)
For the Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets (keep the florets medium sized)
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp kosher coarse salt (adjust per the kind you use)
2 tbsp canola oil
Method:
Preheat your oven to 400F. This is in preparation for roasting the cauliflower.
For the wild rice:
Turn on your Instant Pot to Saute mode set to Normal, and add the vegan butter in. As the butter starts melting, add in cumin powder. Once the butter has melted and is almost golden brown while the cumin powder has toasted, add in the onions. Let cook for 2-3 minutes until the onions have softened. Now drop in the carrots and peas. and toss well and let cook for 2 minutes. Add paprika, red chilli powder and salt; mix well.
Toss in the wild rice, and turn off Saute mode. Toss the mixture together well and let it sit in residual heat for about 5 minutes. This helps the rice absorb all the flavors and moisture from the butter and veggies.
Add the measured water, cover the instant pot and set to Sealing position. Set Manual High Pressure cooking with timer to 30 minutes, and the Instant Pot will automatically start the cooking indicating “on” in the display. Once the correct amount of pressure has built, it will reflect your cooking time “30” and start counting down while cooking. Once complete, it will switch to Keep Warm mode, and let it sit for about 10 more minutes in this mode. Open the Sealing vent to let all the pressure out. Please be very careful while doing this, stand away as hot steam will be released.
Once the pressure is completely released, open the lid and mix together. Taste for seasoning. The addition of butter along with locking in moisture in a pressure cooker is what makes the rice creamy and risotto-like. Sprinkle herbs all over and remove the Instant Pot insert from the cooker and set aside.
If you’re doing this the traditional stove top method, the steps are exactly the same until you add the measured water to the veggie/rice/spice mixture. Then bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Once it’s reached a good boil, drop the heat to medium-low or low, basically enough heat to reach a gentle simmer. This will take about 45-55 minutes on simmer. Check at the 45 minute mark for doneness, and then decide if it needs 5 or 10 minutes more. Sprinkle herbs all over and set aside away from heat.
A couple of additional adjustments I would recommend for stovetop cooking are, 1/4 cup more water that the IP version, and using a large stock pot.
Now onto the cauliflower:
In a baking tray toss the cauliflower florets with measured salt, oil and coriander powder. Toss together well. In the preheated 400F degree oven, it will take around 25-30 minutes to reach perfect texture; crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. Around 25 minute mark, check the cauliflower to then decide if it needs an additional 5 minutes. I let it go for the full 30, I love my crispy edges!
Now just serve a nice healthy dollop of the wild rice, which is pretty fantastic to eat as-is or with a side of salad. With the cauliflower on top, it’s definitely next level 🙂
Please feel free to try it and reach out with comments.
