This Vegetarian Harvest Wild Rice Recipe is colorful, healthy, and the flavors are out of this world. Serve it anytime as a stand alone dinner, or pair it with roasted chicken, baked ham, or pork chops. No matter what you choose, you’re gonna love this dish.
If you are thinking of bringing this rice dish to a potluck or serving it at your own table, rest assured, it will be the star! This is the one that everyone will want the recipe to take home and make for family and friends.
Print a few copies of the recipe for them now. It’s going to happen, so let’s just be prepared!
✨ Why This Recipe Works
Nutrient Rich – This dish is loaded with nutrients to fuel your body, and satisfy the taste buds! It is a great vegetarian dish for a well balanced meal.
Side or Main Dish – This can be a side dish or a main dish. It is up to you. If you are not vegetarian, then pair with some baked chicken, pork, or any other type of protein for a complete meal.
Versatile Ingredients – Don’t like a veggie used? Swap it out! Feel free to create a dish that fits your taste buds.
Stores Well – This dish is great for making and using for grab and go lunches, quick dinner, and more. I love meal prepping dishes like this. It preps easy and stores beautifully. Not to mention, freezer friendly.
Entertaining Friendly – This is such a great dish to have on the table for Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays next to the Roasted Brussel Sprout Stalk. It won’t be repeated by others and it’s so nice to offer variety to the spread.
🌾 Ingredients
You won’t believe how you can transform boxed rice into this amazing and delicious recipe. It’s great for any occasion too. Let’s take a look at the main ingredients:
Rice: Of course, this is the star of the show. We use a combination of boxed long grain rice and basmati rice. It’s perfection!
Vegetables: Use a variety of veggies in the dish. The main vegetables are onions, sweet potatoes, kale, mushrooms, and tomatoes but use the ones that your family loves to make this one a new “go-to” recipe.
Sweet Ingredients: The combination of sweet and savory is always a hit. Adding raisins and dried cranberries give it a subtle sweetness.
🍽️ Instructions
Full directions for this recipe is in the printable recipe card below. This is a walk-through.
Step One: Prepare the rice according to package directions, and set aside.
Step Two: Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into bite size (roughly one inch) cubes. Place them in a bowl with two cups of water, and microwave for three minutes, then stir and cook for three minutes more. Remove them from the microwave.
Note: You should be able to pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork. If you can, then drain, cover them, and set them aside. If you can’t, microwave them in one minute intervals until they are done. You want them to be a little bit firm.
Step Three: Wash and chop the kale, and set aside.
Step Four: Chop and sauté the onion with a tablespoon of butter, until it’s tender and golden brown. Remove from heat, and add the chopped kale to the onions, and stir.
Vegan Cooking Tip: The only thing in this recipe that isn’t vegan-friendly is the butter. Use a butter substitute like sunflower or olive oil. If you use coconut oil as a substitute, use about ¾ of a tablespoon to start and see how it does. If you have a vegan “butter” spread, you can use that as well. This is an easy one to adjust!
Step Five: Chop the parsley and pecans.
Step Six: Add the basmati and long grain wild rice to a large serving bowl. Add the sweet potatoes.
Step Seven: Add the kale, sautéed onions, cranberries, raisins, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and parsley.
Step Eight: Pour the melted butter (or vegan butter substitute) over the rice and vegetables, and toss to coat.
🍲 Make the Dressing
Step One: In a blender, add the red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, Italian seasoning, garlic salt, seasoned salt, and pepper, and mix well.
Step Two: Add olive oil, and blend again for one minute. Pour the dressing over the rice and vegetables and toss to coat. Sprinkle with pecans, and serve.
Take note of this dressing as it works on so many roasted vegetables or rice/vegetable combinations! Put this one in your back pocket as a steady eddy!
🍴 Meal Prep Instructions
Almost every recipe we feature should have some sort of meal prep instructions to ease the stress of preparing meals and this one is no different! We want you to have all the meal prep education you can get so make sure you stop by the 101 post to dig deeper to save time and money.
- Cut the vegetables ahead of time and store them in the refrigerator.
- Prepare the rice and store in the refrigerator.
- Measure out all ingredients for the dressing and set aside. Alternatively, make it 100% ahead of time and store in the refrigerator. That part alone will save you a tremendous amount of time and dishes the evening you serve it!
💡 Expert Tips
- Swap the kale with fresh spinach. It is a simple swap but will change the flavor a bit.
- If you don’t want as much sweet to the rice, leave out the raisins or the cranberries or both.
- The dressing is so simple to make, if you want a lower sugar, reach for sugar free swaps.
- Feel free to double the recipe if you are serving a crowd or want leftovers. Just ensure your pot is large enough.
🥘 Substitution Options
This recipe is great for changing up a few of the vegetables and keeping with the same idea!
- Swap out the sweet potatoes for butternut squash.
- Replace the roasted tomatoes for the sun dried tomatoes.
- Change up the mushrooms. This recipe makes it easy to substitute with items you have on hand
- Cut the sweet potatoes back to two cups and add in two cups of brussel sprouts or broccoli.
- Swap out the kale for spinach.
- Swap out the nuts for ones that you like if pecans aren’t to your liking.
🥄 Related Recipes
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with me through social media by following me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!
Vegetarian Wild Rice
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 box Uncle Ben's Long Grain Rice
- 1 box Organic Basmati Rice
- 4 tbsp Butter melted
- 1 Sweet Onion chopped and sauteed
- 4 cups Sweet Potato cubed
- 1 cup Kale chopped
- 2 cups Dried Cranberries
- 1 cup Golden Raisins
- ½ cup Sliced Mushrooms
- 1 cup Sun Dried Tomatoes
- ½ cup Italian Flat Leaf Parsley chopped
Dressing
- ½ cup Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Coarse Ground Garlic Salt With Parsley
- 1 tsp Seasoned Salt
- ½ tsp Pepper
- 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
- ½ cup Red Wine Vinegar
- ½ cup Balsamic Vinegar
- ¼ cup Honey
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Pecans
Instructions
- Prepare the two rices as according to package instructions.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut in bite size cubes, about 1 inch size pieces.
- Place the sweet potatoes in a microwave safe bowl, with 2 cups of water, and cook for 3 minutes, then stir the sweet potatoes, making sure they are moist, and cook for 3 minutes more. Remove from the microwave, and stir or spoon water over the potatoes. If you can pierce the cubes of sweet potato with a fork, but they're still a little firm, then cover the sweet potatoes, with foil, and set aside. If you cannot pierce them with a fork, place them back in the microwave on 1 minute intervals, checking the potato's between cooking. Do not overcook – you want them a little firm, but not hard.
- When the potatoes are done, cover and set aside.
- Wash and chop the kale, and set aside.
- Chop the onion, and saute the onion in about a Tablespoon of butter, until it's tender and golden brown, then remove from heat, and add the chopped Kale to the onions, and stir.
- Chop the parsley and pecans (unless you bought chopped pecans).
- Place the two rice's in a large serving bowl, and remove the sweet potatoes from the dish, and place them on the Rice – but do not add the water you cooked the sweet potatoes in – simply discard the water.
- Add the Kale and sauteed onion, cranberries, raisins, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and parsley.
- Pour the melted butter over the rice and vegetables, and toss to coat.
- In a blender, add the red wine vinegar, and the balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, Italian seasoning, garlic salt, seasoned salt, and pepper, and blend well. Add the Olive oil, and blend again for 1 minute.
- Pour the dressing over the Rice and vegetables, and toss to coat. Sprinkle with pecans, and serve. Enjoy!
Notes
- Swap out the sweet potatoes for butternut squash.
- Replace Roasted Tomatoes for the Sun Dried Tomatoes. You will lose some flavor but if you happen to not like the Sun Dried, this is a great alternative.
- Change up the mushrooms. This recipe makes it easy to substitute with items you have on hand
- Cut the sweet potatoes back to two cups and add in two cups of brussel sprouts or broccoli.
- Swap out the kale for spinach.
- Swap out the nuts for ones that you like if pecans aren’t to your liking.
- Cut the vegetables ahead of time and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Prepare the rice and store in the refrigerator.
- Measure out all ingredients for the dressing and set aside until ready to make it. Alternatively, you can make it 100% ahead of time and store in the refrigerator. That part alone will save you a tremendous amount of time and dishes the evening you serve it!
Nutrition
Let me know how you like this harvest wild rice! Leave a comment below!
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