Purple rice vs. Wild Rice

December 21, 2019 10:37 AM

I am trying to make this recipe (on stovetop). But I have purple rice, which I've never used before, vs. the wild rice they recommend. Will this work? Anything to modify or watch out for? Thanks!
posted by agregoli to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

So, wild rice (which is not actually rice!) takes a LOT longer to cook than real rice. I'd worry that your purple rice might be mush by the time your soup is done. I'd look for a recipe that had regular rice and copy the timing of when they add it for your recipe.
posted by Weeping_angel at 10:44 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

The other problem with purple rice is that the color is likely to leech out into anything you cook it with, resulting in a lavender soup, which might not be ideal.
posted by neroli at 11:13 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I guess I don't understand why it wouldn't work, since the rice I have says to cook for 45 min and that's how long they recommend putting in the wild rice in the stovepart recipe. I admit that the outcome might be different flavor wise, but the rice shouldn't be mushy if it's the same cooking time, right?
posted by agregoli at 11:21 AM on December 21, 2019

Best answer: If the cooking time is the same, then there shouldn't be a problem - except for the color, which someone already mentioned. It's less lavender and more ... muddy purplish blue ... IMO it's not an appealing color in that type of soup, but I don't particularly care about the color so I would go ahead if it was me.

I've cooked purple rice and 45 minutes sounds like a long time to me. But it's not CRAZY long, because purple rice has a consistency similar to brown rice (rather than white rice). I would have guessed around 25-35 minutes.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 12:28 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

You could always be safe and cook the rice separate and add it to the soup at the end.
posted by stray thoughts at 2:42 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I started substituting purple rice for wild rice this year and it’s great and I recommend it highly! That said, I do recommend cooking it separately (Rinse the grains really well before cooking- the water will never run *clear* but it’ll get close) and adding it in last. Doing it this way I’ve even managed to mix it with basmati rice in a pilaf without staining everything purple.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 7:10 AM on December 22, 2019

Wild rice is technically a wetland grass and not a rice, so you would have to prepare differently as others have said. But still should be delicious!
posted by mermaidcafe at 9:39 AM on December 22, 2019