Food can be Forgiving too…Raw Diet Day 12

As much I’ve talked about myself and likes and dislikes for different foods…the battles that have ensued, instigated by myself against the raw food world as a whole…and lest we forget the many times I’ve blamed my food for each of my many surprises…I experienced what I’ll call a humbling moment with a jar of wild rice tonight that has made me rethink a few things.  Maybe it wasn’t the food all this time, maybe it’s been me.  I’ll explain.

All my life I have had a severe aversion to wild rice.  I don’t like the way it tastes, I don’t like the way it looks, and I don’t like the way it feels.  I ignore it and eat brown rice instead.  I look right past it, and go for the farro and the quinoa every time.  But, in the spirit of the raw diet experiment, and after reading a super good recipe including it, I decided to buy some wild rice today.  Still didn’t like the way it looked, but I was really craving some carbs, and again, why not?  Afterall, I was just gnawing on a corn cob last night (again), surely I can give wild rice a try.

So the directions in the recipe said I needed to bloom the seed.  Seed?  Therein, issue number one diverted.  The reason I have never liked the way wild rice looked, is because I was comparing it to other rices.  Wild rice is not rice.  Imagine that–it’s a grass seed.  Looks pretty good for a seed, I thought.  Bloom.  Okay, sounds less scary than sprout, and I know I can do that, so I continued.  I put raw wild “rice” in a jar filled with lots of water expecting to go through the usual–stare at it for 3 days, rinse it twice a day, and at the end hope for something that’s at least as pliable as a raw piece of spaghetti, but love it because I put effort into it.  I put it aside.  Tonight, when I went to rinse it, I discovered the miracle of wild “rice”.  It had bloomed itself!  It was finished.  The first actually finished grain/seed I’ve had this whole time.  The “rice” had opened up, and was soft, chewy and oh so flavorful!  The possibilities, I thought!

Point is, I’m sure I’ll come up with something delicious to do with my bloomed wild “rice”, and when I do, I will share it with all of you.  As I am approaching Day 14, it won’t be long.  In the meantime, I can’t help but give pause.  After speaking so poorly about the “rice” for so long, to everyone I can think of, passing it up time and time again…today, it has given me such a delightful gift.  I am humbled!

All this time the problem was…it’s been cooked!  Becoming more and more of a Raw believer, literally–day, by day.