This hearty wild rice pilaf is perfect for every occasion, from holiday dinners to weeknight meals! A savory mix of wild and brown rices is infused with herbs and studded with mushrooms and pecans to make this irresistible side dish.
I love wild rice, but I've always found pilafs made with wild rice to be disappointing. How is that possible? I mean, wild rice is the star of the dish, and it's always awesome in other dishes like my vegetable wild rice soup and mushroom wild rice soup.
Jump to:
I think the problem is that in a pilaf, wild rice can be too much. Too much chewiness, too much intense earthy flavor. It's kind of heavy. And mouthful after mouthful of almost all wild rice can get boring.
There are some wild rice recipes where it's good on it's own, but this is not one of them. I found the solution: for my wild rice pilaf, I mix my wild rice with brown rice. A brown and wild rice pilaf has a much nicer balance of flavors and textures. It's my secret to making the absolute best wild rice pilaf.
A fifty-fifty blend of wild to brown rice seems to be the magic ratio, and when you add other ingredients like sautéed mushrooms, peas, and crunchy pecans, your wild rice pilaf is good enough to make a meal of!
Ingredients You'll Need
- Vegan butter. This can usually be found near the regular butter at the supermarket. Look for brands like Earth Balance and Miyokos.
- Onion.
- Garlic.
- Vegetable broth. I like Better Than Bouillon in seasoned vegetable flavor.
- Fresh herbs. We're using thyme and rosemary. Dried herbs can be substituted if you'd like.
- Brown rice. You could substitute white rice if needed, but you'll need to reduce the simmer time by about half.
- Pecans. Feel free to substitute another type of nut or seed if pecans aren't your thing. Walnuts, hazelnuts, and sunflower seeds would all be great!
- Cremini mushrooms. White button mushrooms can be substituted if needed.
- White wine. Feel free to omit this for an alcohol-free recipe. If you do use the wine, check with Barnivore to ensure you choose a vegan brand.
- Salt & pepper.
- Frozen peas. Thaw them out before adding them to the dish.
- Fresh parsley. I like flat leaf parsley best for this recipe, because it has lots of flavor! But curly parsley will work just fine if that's what you have.
How It's Made
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Start by melting your vegan butter in a large pot. When the butter just starts to bubble, add diced onion and cook it for about 5 minutes, until it softens up. Now add some garlic and cook that for about a minute.
Step 2: Next, add some broth, herbs, and your wild rice. We're not adding the brown rice just yet, since wild rice takes a bit longer to cook than brown. Bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for ten minutes.
Step 3: Add the brown rice, then let the liquid come back to a boil.
Step 4: Lower the heat, cover the pot, and let the mixture simmer for about 45 minutes.
While the rice cooks, you're going to toast your pecans and sauté your mushrooms.
Step 5: Melt some more vegan butter in a skillet and add your pecans. Cook them for about 2 minutes, flipping them occasionally. Be careful! Pecans burn quickly. Remove them from the skillet when they're done.
Step 6: Add more butter to the skillet. Add the mushrooms in an even layer and cook them for about 5 minutes on each side, until they're nicely browned and tender.
Step 7: Now pour some wine over the mushrooms and bring it to a simmer. Cook the mushrooms in the wine for a few minutes, until most of it has evaporated.
Step 8: Take the skillet off of heat and season your mushrooms with a bit of salt and pepper.
Step 9: Time to check on your rice! It's done when the brown rice is tender and the wild rice is a bit chewy.
Step 10: If there's some liquid remaining in the pot, drain it, put the rice back in the pot, then let it sit with the lid on for about five minutes.
Step 10: Stir the mushrooms and pecans into the rice, along with some thawed frozen peas and parsley. Give it a taste-test and add as much salt and pepper as you like.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is!
Pretty darn well! Store them in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I reheated mine in the microwave, but I'm sure you could also use the stove top and maybe add a splash of water.
It can! You'll probably just need to cook your mushrooms in a few batches. Cook them in as many batches as you need to in order to avoid piling them on top of each other in the skillet.
Just let it continue cooking, and add some hot water or additional broth to the pot if it dries up too much.
Variations
- Use different mushrooms. You can experiment with using different varieties of fresh mushrooms, like white button, shiitake, or oyster mushrooms.
- Add dried fruit. For a burst of sweetness, stir in a half cup or so of your favorite dried fruit, such as raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, or chopped dried apricots.
- Add vegetables. Add some finely chopped steamed or sautéed veggies, such as diced carrots, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, or asparagus.
Pro Tips
- Rice cooking tip: don't peek! Keep your rice covered until the very end, when it's time to check whether it's done. The steam that develops in the pot will help your rice cook, so you don't want to let it escape.
- A few pointers on cooking mushrooms:
- Don't rinse them with water to clean them. They'll suck it up like crazy, which will prevent browning and give you slimy mushrooms. Instead, wipe them clean with a damp cloth.
- Resist the temptation to stir them around while cooking. They need to sit in the skillet, undisturbed for a few minutes on each side in order to brown.
- Don't crowd them in the skillet. Again, this will prevent browning. Keep them in a relatively even layer and cook them in batches if needed.
More Savory Vegan Side Dishes
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Wild Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms & Pecans
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons vegan butter, divided
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 ½ cups vegetable broth
- ¾ cup wild rice
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried)
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary (or ¾ teaspoon dried)
- ¾ cup brown rice
- ¾ cup finely chopped pecans
- 10 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Melt 1 tablespoon of vegan butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute more, until very fragrant.
- Stir in the broth, wild rice, thyme and rosemary. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the brown rice and bring the liquid back up to a boil.
- Lower the heat and cover the pot. Allow the mixture to simmer for 45 minutes.
- While the rice simmers, melt 1 tablespoon of vegan butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pecans and cook them for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until they darken slightly, being careful not to burn them. Remove the pecans from the skillet and transfer them to a plate.
- Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the skillet, then add the mushrooms in an even layer. Cook the mushrooms in batches if needed to avoid crowding the skillet. Cook the mushrooms for about 5 minutes on each side, until tender and lightly browned.
- Pour the wine over the mushrooms and continue to cook them until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
- Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper to taste, and remove them from the skillet.
- After the rice has simmered for 45 minutes, peek inside the pot to check for doneness. The brown rice should be tender and the wild rice should be slightly chewy.
- When the rice has finished cooking, remove the pot from heat. If there's any excess liquid in the pot, very quickly transfer the rice mixture to a mesh strainer to drain, then return it to the pot. Replace the lid on the pot. Allow the pot to sit with the lid on for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid, then stir in the pecans, mushrooms, peas, and parsley. Season the pilaf with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
I made this recipe tonight. I used *only* wild rice. I added three large stalks of celery, chopped. I used only 2 Tablespoons of chopped pecans that I tossed into the mushroom sauté as it was nearly done. I could still taste the pecans, but overall the finished dish featured the nutty wild rice and umami-rich mushrooms, with a lovely POP! of both color and unique creamy palate texture from the peas. This will be a new "house fave", and will likely replace heavy, yeasty bread stuffing in most of my offerings. I think it was a perfect autumn pairing with my meaty, spicy Nashville Hot Chick-Un. My husband absolutely loved it, too.
Thank you, Alissa, for your plethora of Thanksgiving recipes all in one location. This one is going to be my new "no-bread" stuffing side dish! I think I'll do a trial-run this week and pair it with my Nashville Hot Chick-Un.
This just had too much going on for my family. The peas, cranberries and pecans in addition to the rice and mushrooms did not blend well for us.
We need to avoid processed food so don't use vegan butter. I substituted extra virgin olive oil and instead of wine, substituted 1 1/2; tbs of white wine vinegar and more vegetable broth. The final product was sweet and extremely under seasoned, although I did add salt and pepper prior to serving. I'm pretty sure that it would be delicious as is, without my substitutions, based on the ingredients. I wish that I could have commented without having to leave a rating. I just wanted others with a more restricted diet to be aware of the potential impact that substitutions might have,
This was great! I used Lundgren brand Wild Blend (for all of the rice), simmered for 45 minutes total. Could probably use 1/2 less broth as I did have to drain some off. Great flavor and texture. I added some dried cranberries, too. Can't wait to eat the leftovers for dinner tonight!
They say you should never try out a new recipe for a big or special occasion (or something along those lines) but I have had great success with previous recipes from this site and so I went for it for Christmas dinner. I and my family were not disappointed! Full of flavor and filling. Will make again.
Thank you!
Does this reheat well if made the day before?
It does! It can dry out a bit in the fridge - add a splash of water if it does.
Hi, I have a couple questions. Do you use long or short grain brown rice, and does it matter which type you use? Also, why do you use vegan butter instead of oil? Does it contribute to the taste? Thanks.
I use short grain, but either will work. Vegan butter does contribute to the flavor of the dish, but oil will work as a substitute if that's all you've got on hand. Enjoy!
Delicious and satisfying!
Will definitely make this again!
Made a version of this and my whole family enjoyed it very much.
I made the recipe exact. I liked it but it needs something more. I’m trying to figure out what. Any thoughts?
I think I'll add some dried cranberries for a sweet note
I added dried cranberries after reading your comment and I think that hits exactly the right note. Thanks for the suggestion!