Wild Rice and White Bean Salad

Wild White Bean Salad

Last week I was shopping at a local health food store that has a nice selection of healthy salads in their delicatessen.  After having a sample, I ordered a wild rice salad that they called Wild White Bean Salad. It had giant white beans in it that were at least an inch and a half across; I have never seen a bean this large before.

I chose to purchase the smallest container that they had available, the employee weighed it out and gave it to me; I tossed it in my cart without looking at the price.

When I got home I couldn't believe how much I had paid for it, $4.20 for 0.42 lb or $9.99 a lb., which amounted to about 1/2 cup of salad.

 At least it was good and my reason for buying it was so that I could figure out how to make it. The ingredients were listed on the label which made that part easy, I just had to play around with the vinaigrette to get the flavors right. I didn't 't have any large white beans so I used cannellini beans.***

Here is what I came up with:

Wild White Bean Salad

Printable Recipe 

• 1 cup Red Bell Pepper, diced
• 3/4 cup Celery, diced
• 3 tablespoons Fresh Parsley, chopped
• 1 cup Cannellini beans (160 gr) rinsed and drained
• 3 cups cooked Wild Rice (490 gr cooked)**

Combine above ingredients together and toss with vinaigrette (recipe follows). Refrigerate for several hours to allow the flavors to meld and the rice to absorb the vinaigrette.
** 1 cup dry makes approximately 3 cups cooked wild rice.

Vinaigrette

• 2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
• 3 tablespoons Honey
• 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 4 tablespoons Good Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
• Pepper to taste

Blend together until emulsified using a small whisk or fork.

Recipe makes 5.2 servings or 1 cup each. This is a very generous serving but very low in calories and high in nutrition. you could easily serve 1/2 cup on a bed of spinach or arugula for a nice spring salad. Toss a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the greens then top with the bean salad.

Nutritional Data provided by NutriMirror

Wild Rice, Minnesota's State Grain, is almost as old as history itself. This highly nutritious grain is not actually rice, but an annual water-grass seed, "zizania aquatica".  Found mostly in the upper freshwater lakes of Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Wild rice towers over other rices when it comes to amounts of protein, minerals, B vitamins, folic acid, and carbohydrates. While the protein content of 1/2 cup of cooked wild rice measures 3.3 grams, that same quantity of long grain brown rice contains only 2 grams. The bonus is that the wild rice, though high in carbohydrates at 17.5 grams, has only 83 calories for 1/2 cup cooked. 

Using the same 1/2 cup measurement of cooked rice grains, the folic acid content soars over brown rice with 21.3 mcg for wild rice and 3.9 mcg for brown rice. According to the University of California Berkeley Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, 1/2 cup dry wild rice provides 95 mcg or 48% of the RDA (200 mcg) of folic acid for men and 53% for women.

***Since making this I have had a few people tell me that the bean may be a large Lima Bean called Gigandes beans. Leave it to the Peruvian's to find us yet another wonderful bean!  Sounds like I need to head to my local Vallarta Supermarket and find these beans!

Machu Picchu Quinoa Salad

I have been coming up with more and more recipes these past few weeks as my husband and I try to follow a vegan diet. We have drastically reduced the amount of days a week that we eat meat.  Most weeks we may have it only once and often not at all.  It is not that difficult to do when you have wonderful beans, seeds and grains that will supply you with all the protein your body needs.  This salad was inspired from watching a video on Quinua Peru the other night and seeing a group of Indians picking quinoa in the fields.

Machu Picchu Red Quinoa Salad

(Makes 8-1 cup servings)

Quinoa (pronunced KEEN-wah) seeds require rinsing to remove the bitter saponin coating, that protects them from being eaten by birds. Simple rinsing with water in a fine mesh strainer until the water runs clear is enough of a cleaning. Make sure to use a fine mesh strainer so you don't lose the seeds down the drain.

1 cup dry Red Quinoa, rinsed well

1¾ cup Roasted Corn, frozen

1½ cups Cooked Pinto Beans, rinsed drained

5 small Scallions with tops, sliced

2 small to medium fresh Poblano Peppers, cleaned and diced

1 cup Roasted Roma Tomatoes, chopped (or 1 cup canned, diced tomatoes, well drained)

6 -8 Black Olives, such as Kalamata, chopped

Juice from 2 small lemons (about 4 Tbsp)

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 tsp gr. Coriander

1 Tbsp gr. Cumin

1 Tbsp dried Oregano

Salt and Pepper to taste

Fresh Cilantro leaves (garnish)

Cook Quinoa; follow package directions or use a rice cooker and add 3 cups of water to 1 cup of dry quinoa.  This should make about 3 cups of quinoa.  Make sure to rinse the quinoa prior to cooking under running water to remove the

Mix together olive oil, lemon juice and herbs and spices in the bottom of a 3 quart bowl.  

Add quinoa, pinto beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, olives and scallions to the oil mixture and toss together. The remaining heat from the quinoa will thaw the corn if you have not already done so.   

Add salt and pepper to taste.  I use the optional fresh cilantro leaves for a garnish, but you can also add that to the salad directly

Serve warm or refrigerate to blend flavors.

***This is fantastic heated and rolled up in a tortilla or Flatout flat-bread.  Top with your favorite salsa and some cheese if you like.

 Since I have this wonderful Peruvian wall hanging depicting children at a school in Machu Picchu, I will give you a history lesson on Quinoa.

Quinoa is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds. Quinoa originated in the Andean region of Peru, where it was successfully domesticated 3000 to 4000 years ago for human consumption, though archaeological evidence shows a non-domesticated association with pastoral herding some 5200 to 7000 years ago. (Wikipedia).

"Disfrute de la ensalada"

 Nutritional information provided by NutriMirror