From lake to plate: Chefs take pride in serving wild rice dishes

Charles noted wild rice is well-known to northerners, but he added it is enjoyed by residents from southern communities, too.

“We always get the northerners who enjoy wild rice and they order it right away,” he remarked.

“People (who) aren’t too familiar with wild rice, when they come up to visit La Ronge, they will try it out and they are surprised by the quality and how wild rice tastes. You can do many things with it and it is versatile,” Charles explained. “You can incorporate it into many dishes, many salads. When you taste it on a burger, it kind of sparks the creativity, so you start putting it into other things you enjoy, and you realize that it works.”

Jamie Charles uses wild rice at his restaurant in Air Ronge. (Jamie Charles/Submitted)

Chef Jenni Lessard, who is originally from La Ronge but now based in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Sask., almost exclusively substitutes wild rice for regular rice in her dishes. She’s the owner of Inspired By Nature Culinary Consulting and creates recipes and menus for a variety of clients.

Lessard will use wild rice in everything from savoury dishes to appetizers to breakfast to desserts.

“I think there is a sense of pride when I cook with or make recipes with wild rice because it does feel like part of where I am from,” she said.

“It just tastes good. It’s kind of nutty. It’s texturally interesting and I find it is very satiating, like it keeps you full longer than a regular white rice.”

Some dishes incorporating wild rice that came to Lessard’s mind were pork tenderloin stuffed with wild rice with bannock crumbs and dried cranberries, as well as wild rice flour for gluten-free pancakes using coconut milk and flax egg.

“I’ve actually done a wild rice sushi too,” she mentioned.

“I’ll cook it quite a lot and then add it with barley or brown rice to kind of do a Saskatchewan version of sushi, and then you just do the same thing adding the sushi vinegar and adding some seasonings, salt and a little bit of sugar and it works really well. It tastes so good with fresh northern pike or walleye.”

Lessard said more and more people are learning about wild rice and it is no longer as exotic as it once was. Sometimes, she will mix wild rice with more common rice varieties to introduce it to people who are trying it for the first time. Although it does take a little longer to cook (though soaking can cut down on cooking time), it can easily be made in a rice cooker.

“It is such an honour to work with it. Every time I cook wild rice, I think of the harvesters,” she said.

“Families are spending weeks and weeks out at the camps and out on the lake in different conditions, and then the driving and the flying. The trip that the wild rice has to take depending on where the camp is located is just pretty cool. I love using a product that has a story and this story kind of coincides with my own.”

Read more:

• Part 1: Wild rice harvesting draws Indigenous people to the land
• Part 2: Sask. Polytechnic bringing innovation to tired wild rice industry
• Part 3: From lake to plate: La Ronge major centre for wild rice processing