Healthy Wild Rice Recipes

Inspired by creamy turkey and wild rice soup recipes, this vegetarian mushroom soup recipe is a whole lot lighter and gets a rich flavor boost from caramelized leeks. Serve with a green salad with sherry vinaigrette and crusty bread to sop up any bits left in the bowl.

Change up your Sunday morning pancake routine with this savory pancake recipe studded with sausage crumbles and shredded sharp Cheddar. Serve these healthy pancakes with fried eggs and slices of fresh tomato.

Nutty-tasting grains, such as wild rice, barley and wheat berries, make this simple side-dish pilaf so much more than the sum of its parts. Since the wild rice cooks faster than wheat berries and hulled barley, presoak the longer-cooking grains to make the cooking times compatible. If you would like to add fresh mushrooms, quickly sauté them and stir them into the cooked pilaf. Or try this flavor variation: Omit dill and substitute 1 teaspoon lemon zest for lemon juice. Stir in 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese just before serving.

This amazing wild-rice stuffing recipe is bursting with rustic fall flavors, including rye bread, sausage, apples, dried cherries, pecans and fresh herbs.

Although white sushi rice is traditional, this brown sushi rice base is blended with other grains and lentils. Traditional vinegar and sugar seasoning are omitted in this whole-grain brown sushi rice recipe so that the natural taste of the whole grains shines through. Any lentils work--French green lentils hold their shape best.

In this grilled chicken recipe from Charlie Foster, executive chef at Woods Hill Table and Adelita in Massachusetts, bone-in breasts are served with the chef's take on Southern dirty rice with chicken livers. Foster believes in the nose-to-tail ethos so he uses as much of each animal as he can. Serve the chicken and rice with grilled wild mushrooms and greens. The dirty rice would also be wonderful with baked or roasted chicken or with turkey.

Colorful apricots, scallions and pistachios make this vibrant dish worthy of any holiday table. Since wild rice (really a grass) does not absorb liquid to the extent that true rice and other grains do, cook it in boiling water and saute the vegetables separately so they stay tender-crisp.

Use leftover Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey for this main dish soup--or stop by the deli. Suitable for diabetic meal plans, this low-calorie slow-cooker soup develops excellent savory flavors with minimal attention from the cook.

This easy apple and pork salad uses up the leftovers from two separate recipes--Maple-Mustard Pork and Wild Rice Pilaf--for a fast and easy lunch or dinner. Since it's served cold, it's especially good for packing up for work lunches. The simple cider vinegar and honey dressing would be nice on any grain salad.

Swapping in cauliflower rice can help create a lower-carb holiday side. To ensure a perfect texture, wild rice and riced cauliflower are cooked separately and then combined.

This gluten-free dressing (or stuffing, if you prefer) leans on a blend of brown and wild rice for a complex nutty flavor. Look for dried Mission figs in the bulk aisle or with the packaged dried fruit in your grocery store. You can swap in dried cherries or cranberries if you can't find dried figs.

This 25-minutes, main dish, grain salad features a wild rice mix and cooked turkey breast. Sweet apples and dried cherries are a pleasing contrast to the crunchy celery and toasted pecans, and the thyme-flavored dressing enhances all the different flavors nicely. It can be chilled for up to 24 hours, so consider making it a day ahead.

This colorful, healthy salad recipe features persimmons--lightly sweet fruit, commonly grown in California, that ripen just in time to grace holiday tables. If you can't find persimmons, diced apples are a good alternative.

This cranberry-glazed turkey breast recipe, which uses a split bone-in turkey breast, is the perfect thing to make if you're serving a smaller crowd or if everyone wants white meat. The wild rice pilaf recipe is delicious on its own so you can make it even if you don't prepare the turkey.

Sourdough bread, a mix of earthy mushrooms and wild rice fill sweet acorn squash in this vegan Thanksgiving dish that's just the right size for two people. Sweet carnival squash, with its stripes and speckles, is a fun alternative to acorn squash if you can get your hands on one.

Double this salad and add leftover cooked chicken or pork for a great lunchbox treat.

The addition of pea pods and raisins to rice and barley makes this crowd-pleasing salad extra nutritious. Chill for at least four hours to give the salad time to soak up the flavors of the low-fat orange dressing.

Bread stuffings are common with roasts, but rice stuffings are a wonderful alternative. In this main-dish pork recipe we use a mixture of wild rice, dried cherries and pork sausage to create a stuffing that will have your family asking for seconds.

Barley and wild rice combine with sweet golden raisins and fresh snow peas in this simple and healthy side dish recipe. Serve it with chicken, pork, or beef.

A departure from classic bread-based stuffing, this recipe can also be served as an accompaniment to game.