Wild rice is a common staple among Native Americans who focus on living from the land, but it turns out that the food can also be used to make fun treats, as well.
Lucy Grignon, with the Ancient Roots Homestead in Bowler, developed it as part of a naturally tasty granola bar, combining it with honey, maple syrup, seeds and berries. She showed off the granola bars March 8 during the College of Menominee Nation’s winter farmers market.
“You can take it and shape it into a granola bar, or you can leave it in small pieces like a piece of granola,” Grignon said as she showed off the pieces being held in plastic containers for people to sample. “You’re taking a cast iron skillet with a little bit of sunflower oil and getting it nice and full, and then you’re putting in a handful or a cup, however much wild rice you want to puff, and it pops open within 10 seconds. It’s white on the inside, and what’s binding it all together is a mixture of maple syrup, maple sugar and honey.”
She added that the granola itself is an ideal thing to serve as a topping on yogurt, as well.
The granola bars are part of a cookbook Grignon is making from the lessons she’s learning by growing things at the Ancient Roots Homestead. A date hasn’t been set for the cookbook’s release, although she’s hoping it will be out by the end of 2024.
Grignon said it was important for her to develop a cookbook with items made from Indigenous ingredients, because she wants to remind her people of the importance of eating indigenously while teaching it to the rest of the world.
“My mother is a cook, and this is really inspired by her,” Grignon said. “She devoted her life to cooking for other people, for the community, but for herself and her family, as well. I grew up watching her write out recipes and try out different things, so it just became really natural for me to share our recipes with the community.”
Besides offering up tasty treats, Grignon seeks to offer the wisdom of the Indigenous people who came before her. She is currently talking with elders in the Menominee tribe and learning for herself how her ancestors survived off the land.
“People get excited while trying out new recipes and they’re trying out new ingredients,” Grignon said. “They’re really open to it.”
With the wild rice, Grignon said she’s learned about how the Menominee would participate in “reseeding the wild rice, harvesting, dancing and stomping on it and figuring out how we really use it as an ingredient on my shelf. It’s a whole Indigenous activity we’ve done for years, so being able to include this among my recipes is really an honor.”
Grignon noted that the recipes for the cookbook are a mixture of recipes she already had and those that she continues to develop through her Ancient Roots work.
“Some of them come from a long line of lineage of family members cooking,” she said. “Some of them are recipes I’ve tried, and I take out certain ingredients and infuse them with Indigenous ingredients. For example, instead of using a white sugar, I’m putting maple sugar into the recipe just to be more Indigenous with the ingredients that we’re using. I’m highlighting those traditional activities that our people do and still do today.”
Grignon added that the maple sugar has a similar taste to the white sugar many use when baking something but is more natural coming from a maple tree.
“That’s really fun, because you’re taking the maple sap and boiling it down into syrup, and then when you boil it down a little further and stir a lot, it crystallizes into a sugar,” Grignon said.
Grignon likes that the recipes will also have a historical context from the elders she’s interviewing to learn why the tribe has done what it has done when it comes to food. She noted that can be just as time-consuming as preparing the recipes themselves.
“The flavors in some recipes remind them of their childhood,” Grignon said. “Getting to visit with the elders takes a while.”
POPPED WILD RICE GRANOLA BARS
Ingredients: Sunflower oil, for frying
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup flax seeds
3 cups of dried wild rice
1/2 cup dried quinoa
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup maple sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup dried blueberries
1 cup dried cranberries
Directions
• Pour sunflower oil into a cast iron pan. Let it heat up.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Spread pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and flax seeds onto a baking sheet and toast for 3-5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool.
• Pour 1 cup of rice into the oil-filled pan for 3 minutes or until rice has puffed (showing white), stirring the entire time.
• Using a slotted metal spoon, scoop out puffed rice and transfer to a bowl lined with paper towels.
• Continue to pop wild rice one cup at a time.
• Cook quinoa in the hot coconut oil pan 1-2 minutes, showing white. Add it into the wild rice bowl.
• Line a 9X3 baking dish with parchment paper.
• Combine coconut oil, honey, maple syrup and maple sugar into a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Cook for 20 minutes undisturbed. Syrup should create a thin string.
• Add cooled popped wild rice and quinoa, salt, dried blueberries and cranberries to the seed mix.
• Grease spatula. Pour 1/2 syrup into a bowl, stir. Add remaining syrup. Toss until coated.
• Quickly transfer mixture into baking dish. Press and pack firmly.
• Let cool for two hours.
• Cut into 15-18 pieces.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Granola bars show flexibility of wild rice
