It’s shocking how many varieties of rice I have to choose from, yet I choose the same kind over and over.  It used to be Calrose or California rice, then Sweet Brown Rice.  But I’ve been eyeing the wild rice for some time, and decided to dive in.

What I found out was, wild rice, isn’t truly rice at all.  All though many varieties in the grocery store has mixed it with other rice’s (the Wild rice is the black grains you see),  it is actually the seed of a grass. It’s extremely high in protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, folic acid, and fiber.

Did my kids like it?  They didn’t hate it. They tried it.  With some foods I have found its best to NOT to say, “It’s just like the rice you always eat!” Cause its not.  Just like I told them not to compare my Macaroni and Cheese with the kind they have tried from the grocery store, but simply we are having “Elbow noodles with a cheese on top”. 

The wild rice took much longer to cook, so start early.  It had a nutty, savory flavor to it.  Even I only needed a small portion of this rice, whereas white rice, we could literally eat a whole cup, EACH OF US!

Its a great idea to expose your kids to different varieties of similar foods.  Not only do some varieties have more nutrients than the traditional ones we eat (such as in this case) but this movie, The Future of Food, discusses the dangers of eating and growing only one variety of corn.  In other countries, they are still eating hundreds of varieties of corn.  So if one variety gets diseased, they still have 99 other varieties to consume.  Pretty fascinating.