• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Forager | Chef
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Interviews
  • Partnerships
  • Contact
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Interviews
  • Partnerships
  • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Home
    • About
    • Recipes
    • Interviews
    • Partnerships
    • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » Wild Mushroom Recipes

    Warm Mushroom Wild Rice Salad

    Published: Aug 6, 2022 Modified: Dec 7, 2022 by Alan Bergo This post may contain affiliate links 6 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Earlier this week I was throwing together staff meal for a video shoot with Barebones Living. A big bowl of wild rice with chanterelle mushrooms was supposed to be for the crew, but it ended up in the shoot. It's a great side dish, and works well as a vegan mushroom recipe if you omit the bacon.

    Chanterelle mushroom wild rice with dill flowers

    The shoot was focused on summer foraging and campfire cooking. I'd planned on making pork chops with serviceberry sauce, as well as my favorite French chanterelle omelet. 

    Pork chop with seviceberry sauce and foraged greens
    Pork chops with serviceberry sauce and wild greens. Image by Jesse Roesler. 

    As I prepped ingredients for the shoot the night before, I remembered I'd forgotten to make staff meal. Thinking back to my first trip to the barrens with Sam Thayer, I remembered escaping the sun under some hazelnut shrubs to share a big bowl of wild rice with vegetables for lunch.

    Filming foraging in the Pine Barrens
    Image by Andy Berndt.

    Wild rice, especially natural wild rice, is great at any temperature. Served cool, warm, or room temp, it makes a great salad as it's not as heavy as black paddy wild rice. If you're not familiar with the real deal, there's a link at the bottom of the post where I go in-depth on the confusing differences between different types of wild rice. 

    Parched or natural wild rice
    The real deal. Parched wild rice. I usually buy mine from KC's Best, but there's lots of suppliers.

    I cooked up a big pan of chanterelles and a couple handfuls of summer vegetables, added some rice, seasoned it, let it cool, mixed in a bunch of herbs, and packed it into deli containers.

    Newfoundland chanterelles (Cantharellus enelensis)
    Cantharellus enelensis (the Newfoundland chanterelle) grows in the jack pine forests.

    As I cooked I thought about how it was a nice, one-pan chanterelle recipe that'd also be perfect for the shoot, and more rustic than my omelet than makes a smaller serving. So I scratched the omelet and prepped another batch of rice for the shoot instead. 

    Chanterelle mushroom wild rice

    Some of the best food is cooked in the moment with feel and instinct, instead of by following directions.

    How to Make It 

    There's a lot of mushrooms in this. It's a good thing to make when you have a bag of mushrooms cleaned in the fridge already and you couldn't help but go and pick more anyway. 

    You cook a little cured meat like bacon (optional), lots of chanterelles or other wild mushrooms, wild rice, a couple stingy handfuls of vegetables that function as a garnish, and plenty of herbs.

    It's all about the wild mushrooms and rice here. A handful of black walnuts is a nice touch if you have some. 

    Cutting lamb bacon
    Cutting chanterelle mushrooms
    Cutting garlic scapes
    Cooking chanterelle mushrooms
    Chanterelle mushroom wild rice
    Chanterelle mushroom wild rice

    For the vegetables, I used a little fennel, carrot and garlic scapes, but these can be whatever you have on hand. I made it a few times throughout the week, switching out fennel for sweet corn, peppers for carrots, etc. 

    Chanterelle Wild Rice (5)
    It's all about the chanterelles here.

    Whatever you do, try to keep the amount of vegetables to around 8 oz (not including the scallions) as they're just a garnish. If you use too many the chanterelles can fade into the background.

    Serving variations 

    If I serve salads like this cold or room temp, I season it more, and I might omit the mushrooms or cut them into smaller pieces. Adding extra oil like Sam's hickory nut, or some EVOO, along with some fresh lemon juice or vinegar and extra herbs can make it pop more if it's eaten cool too. Wild rice salads also travel well. 

    Chanterelle mushroom wild rice with dill flowers

    More 

    Wild Rice: A Guide to Purchasing and Cooking 

    Chanterelles 

    Vegetarian and Vegan Mushroom Recipes

    Chanterelle mushroom wild rice with dill flowers
    Print Recipe
    5 from 4 votes

    Warm Mushroom Wild Rice Salad

    A warm salad of wild rice and chanterelle mushrooms garnished with vegetables and black walnuts. Serves 4-6 as a side dish
    Prep Time30 mins
    Cook Time30 mins
    Course: Side Dish
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: Black Walnuts, Chanterelles, Wild Rice
    Author: Alan Bergo

    Ingredients

    Mushrooms and Vegetables

    • 1 3 oz fennel, diced small ¼ inch dice
    • 1 small carrot, peeled and thinly sliced ¼ inch slices
    • 2 oz garlic scapes, thinly sliced
    • 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced, tops and bottoms trimmed
    • 1 large clove garlic grated or minced
    • 10 oz chanterelles preferably smaller buttons
    • 4 oz thinly sliced or diced bacon optional
    • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter or oil use butter if you’ll serve it hot or warm, oil if you’ll serve it as a salad
    • 2 oz ¼ cup lightly toasted black walnuts, optional

    Wild Rice

    • 1 cup natural wild rice
    • 2 cups chicken stock or water
    • Generous handful of roughly shredded herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, dill, mint, tarragon, chives, or a combination of whatever you have, to taste
    • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

    Serving

    • Dill flowers, optional

    Instructions

    Rice

    • Combine the wild rice, ½ teaspoon salt (skip the salt if you use stock that’s seasoned) water or stock and bring to a simmer.
    • Cover the pan and cook on low for 20 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid has been completely absorbed. Allow the rice to rest while you’re preparing the rest of the ingredients.

    Chanterelles and Vegetables

    • Clean the chanterelles by swishing in water quickly if needed. Large mushrooms should be cut in half. Small buttons that haven’t opened their caps should be left whole.
    • Render the fat from the bacon if using slowly on medium-high heat in a large 10-12 inch cast iron skillet.
    • When the fat has released, add the chanterelles, turning the heat to medium and cooking until their liquid has released and the mushrooms have begun to take on some color. If the pan threatens to get dry, add a splash of stock or water.
    • Add half the butter or oil, vegetables (except the scallions) and garlic, season with a generous pinch of salt, turn the heat to medium-low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
    • Add the rice and the nuts, remaining butter or oil, stir and heat through. Double check the seasoning and adjust until it tastes good to you. It should be lightly dressed with fat, herby, and well seasoned. Serve garnished with a few dill flowers, if using.
    • The rice will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge.

    To serve the dish as a cold or room temperature salad

    • Season the dish with a little extra oil and salt as chilling mutes flavors. I like to pack it into deli containers and bring it in a cooler for a quick, filling meal in the field. Before serving I might add lemon juice or vinegar, and more fresh herbs.
    « Fermented Green Ramp Seeds
    Cattail Rhizome Salad with Smoked Trout »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Randall Thompson

      August 08, 2022 at 10:43 am

      I will definitely add this to my recipe book!

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        August 12, 2022 at 4:17 pm

        Not a book in print, I hope. Glad you liked it.

        Reply
    2. Chris Neefus

      August 13, 2022 at 2:46 pm

      5 stars
      I found a couple pounds of chanterelles in the White Mountains (NH) last week and made this recipe. It was outstanding. I’ll bet it would work well with morels.

      Thanks for the link to your guide to wild rice. I used wood parched wild rice. Wow! I’ll never buy black commodity wild rice again

      Reply
    3. Brenna

      August 29, 2022 at 4:59 pm

      5 stars
      Made this tonight with some chicken of the woods and turkey bacon and duck fat. Can't do mammals but it didn't matter, this was delicious! Thank you

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        September 03, 2022 at 8:28 am

        I'm going to say I can only assume why you can't have mammals, and my heart goes out to you. Ticks suck. Glad it worked for you.

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Chef Alan Bergo

    HI, I'm Alan: James Beard Award-winning Chef, Author, Show Host and Forager. I've been writing about cooking wild food here for over a decade. Let me show you why foraging is the most delicious thing you'll ever do.

    More about me →

    Get The Book

    the forager chef's book of flora
    The Forager Chefs Book of Flora

    As Seen On

    Footer

    BACK TO TOP

    Privacy

    Subscribe

    Be the first to hear what I'm doing

    Contact

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2022 Forager | Chef®