Wild Rice With Cranberries & Pecans

Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 3/4 cup wild rice
• 3/4 cup medium barley
• 1 3/4 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped (about 12 oz.)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leave
• 1/2 cup minced parsley
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries (the sweetened kind)

Recipe

• 1 combine the rice, barley, salt, broth and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, partially cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice is tender, about 40 minutes.
• 2 if any liquid is still remaining after the rice is cooked, drain the rice.
• 3 heat the olive oil and saute the onion, garlic, celery and carrot until slightly soft but not brown about 3 minutes.
• 4 sprinkle with the salt, cover the pan, adjust the heat to med-low and cook the vegetables until crisp-tender, 5 minutes longer.
• 5 add the sage, thyme and parsley and saute 1 minute more.
• 6 remove from heat.
• 7 mix in the rice, the pecans and the cranberries.
• 8 taste and adjust the salt and pepper to taste.
• 9 note 1- substitutions: you can substitute any nut for the pecans (try walnuts or hazelnuts).
• 10 you can use all wild rice or all barley.
• 11 note 2- this recipe was originally a stuffing recipe, but i like it as a side dish.
• 12 you can certainly use it to stuff poultry, though.