Wild Rice with Pine Nuts is a delicious side dish made with of course wild rice and brown rice. There are also roasted pine nuts, dried cranberries, orange zest and juice and a little parmesan cheese.

Wild Rice is so healthy and I love the taste. It has a hardy and nutty flavor that I especially like when it is in a blend with brown rice. My favorite place to purchase this blend is at Sprouts. The value in their bulk foods is hard to beat.

Wild Rice with Pine Nuts recipe was given to me by a close friend. She published it in our church cookbook and I have been making it for years. Wild Rice with Pine Nuts is made with of course, wild rice, but it has orange zest and dried cranberries, too. It has a slightly sweet taste, but do not mistake me, this is a savory dish. It pairs well with chicken, salmon, halibut or just about any protein. As the weather turns a little cooler, Wild Rice with Pine Nuts always reminds me of fall.

How to Make Wild Rice With Pine Nuts

1. Using hot water from the tap pour it into a saucepan. Add chicken bouillon. You can either buy chicken bouillon cubes or in a powder. I use both interchangeably all the time. Sometimes I struggle to find bouillon in the grocery store and it seems to be expensive. I like to buy mine in bulk from Amazon. Love the chicken bouillon in powder form that Knorr makes. The Knorr Powder chicken bouillon is always available in a Mexican or Hispanic supermercado. Don’t have any bouillon, use salt. Bouillon adds a depth of flavor that calls to me.

2. Pour the wild rice blend into the pan. Heat until boiling. Putting the lid on a pan will make it boil faster. Keep your eye on the pan. When it starts to boil, the starchy water will easily run over the sides of the pan.

3. Wild rice takes at least 45 minutes to cook and some times a little longer. After the timer goes off at 45 minutes, take the lid off. You are looking to see if all the water has boiled out. You need tiny little holes in the top of the rice. This is the sign you are always looking for to see if your rice is cooked.
Take a small spoonful of rice and taste it. If the kernels are soft and not crunchy, the rice is done. If the rice is still crunchy and when you tilt the pan and you see water, the rice is not done. Cook for another 10 minutes.

Let the rice sit on the stovetop with the lid on for another 10 minutes after baking. This will help the rice absorb any water that might be at the very bottom.

Cooking the Wild Rice Ahead Is a Great Idea

4. When making this recipe, I try and make the rice ahead. I love making this for dinner, especially Thanksgiving, but with the cooking of the rice and the baking of the ingredients together, it can eat up all your prep time. Have the rice ready to use when you assemble this dish. I like to make the wild rice in the morning and let it sit on the stove top during the day. This way, the rice is room temperature when I bake the dish for dinner. If you refrigerate the rice, add another 10 minutes to your bake time.

5. Toast the pine nuts. Pine nuts can be expensive. Costco always has them so does Sam’s Club. You can find them in smaller packages at Walmart.

Pour one cup of nuts on a baking dish and put them in a 350° oven. I like to place my pan on a top rack where all the heat is. After 5 minutes, use a spatula to turn the nuts. Bake another 5 minutes until the nuts are a golden brown color.

Pine Nuts roasted in the oven to a golden brown.

Using a Microplane makes getting zest off an orange easy.

6. Zest and juice the oranges. You will need the zest of two oranges, but only the juice of one. Zesting is easy if you have a microplane zester. The price of them has come down quite a bit in the last several years. I use mine all the time for lemon, lime and orange zesting. Many people use them for nutmeg and cinnamon grating or for chocolate.

If you don’t you have one, you can can use the small side of a box grater. Make sure you do not get any of the white part of the orange, as this is very bitter to the taste. Place the zest and juice in a small bowl and set this aside in a small dish.

7. Parmesan Cheese is probably one of my all time favorite ingredients. It is delicious in Sweet Wild Rice and Pine Nuts. I always purchase a wedge of parmesan cheese and keep it in the original waxed plastic line tucked into a plastic bag to keep it dry and ready to use at any moment. The parmesan cheese is divided in this dish. Some is used in the rice dish and the other is sprinkled on top.

Other Side Dishes on Dina’s Diner.

Green beans cooked to perfection in chicken broth then sprinkled with olive oil, garlic salt and parmesan cheese — Delightful Green Beans

These Roasted Brussel Sprouts are delicious and a perfect side for any dinner. — Delightful Green Beans

8. To assemble, place all the rice in a large bowl. Add the dried parsley, the orange zest and juice, the olive oil, the dried cranberries, the toasted pine nuts, half of the grated parmesan cheese and any salt and pepper you would like to add.

Mix thoroughly and sprinkle on the other half of the parmesan cheese. Pour this mixture into a large 9 x 13 pan. Use the back of the wooden spoon to make it smooth. Place the dish in a 350° oven and bake for 20 minutes if the rice is room temperature, 30 minutes if you refrigerated the rice beforehand.

Here are a few products I like to use when making Wild Rice With Pine Nuts.

When you purchase items from the Amazon links below, I receive a small commission.