Wrap It Up, Raw Style!

Hello, lovely people! The week is finally over, and it is time to relax with the family!

But I posted about sprouting/soaking grains, and wanted to share my experiment! So here it is... TADA!!!

My first attempt with soaked wild rice - it required soaking for 2-3 days. That may sound like a lot of work, but it was really easy! Just filled up a glass container with water and rice, then rinsed it 2-3 times each day and refilled with clean water. By the third day, it was soft and chewy! Granted, not as soft as if it had been cooked, but I actually found I liked the heartier texture!

So, after that was ready, I added in some raw corn (corn is really important to get organic!), some black beans (those were cooked), diced in tomato, and seasonings! And we were all ready for Veggie Wraps Raw Style! (...if you ignore the cheese and salsa that Dave wanted!) ;-)

This was such a nice picnic dinner! We just set the tray on the floor, popped in a movie, and wrapped the rice blend in the Romaine leaves! Admittedly, it was a little messy, but hey - living messy can be living fun!!!

This is definitely a recipe I will want to repeat! If you don't count the prep-time of the rice (since that's really not labor intensive) I pulled this thing together in all of 5 to 10 minutes, and got such a healthy, hearty meal from it!

Veggie Wraps Raw Style

2 c. wild rice, soaked 2-3 days

1 ear organic corn

1 tomato, diced

1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed

seasonings as desired - experiment with what you like! Cumin, cilantro, cayenne, sea salt...

4-6 Romaine leaves

Optional: get some healthy fats from diced avocado; get a bonus health boost with minced garlic; add some spice and color with raw red onion; try other leaves like collards or dinosaur kale for a deeper green wrap; and mostly... HAVE FUN EXPERIMENTING!!

Cut the corn off the ear, add it to the rice. Then add in the diced tomato, the beans, and seasonings. Scoop into a Romaine leaf, wrap as best you can, and enjoy with napkins nearby!

(Traditional Wild Rice Harvesting)

A USDA review of the health benefits of wild rice states "Nutritionally, wild rice has several attributes that set it aside from many other cereals. Wild rice has a higher protein content than most cereals. Also, for a cereal, it has an adequate balance of the essential amino acids." (cereals being oats, wheats, other rices, and corn.)

It has about twice the protein as brown rice (almost 24g per cup if eaten raw!) and, while not a high-fat item, wild rice does contain a little bit of the wonderful Omega-6 essential fatty acid, linoleic acid! And, other than calcium, wild rice has more nutrients that brown rice regarding iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and the B vitamins thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin!

I am not saying all that to bash brown rice! Brown rice is a still a healthy option with its own benefits over wild rice! I am just trying to motivate you to try something new, if you haven't yet! :)

So have a wonderful weekend, and go try something new!

~Katie