1. Cook the rice.

Bring your 3 cups of broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the saffron. Then add the wild rice, stir, and bring back up to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let cook for about 1 hour.

Unlike with white rice, it is okay to uncover and check on wild rice as it is cooking — so give it a check at about 30 minutes and about every 10 minutes after that. It is done when you notice that the rice grains start to crack open and it tastes chewy in a good way (you can keep cooking until you reach your desired level of chewiness).

When it is nearly done, if there is still a substantial amount of broth in the pan, do not pour it off. You want that delicious saffron broth flavor! If this happens, turn up the heat and continue to cook uncovered until the broth has reduced. I actually prefer to keep about 1/2 to 1/4 cup of broth at the bottom of my rice as I think it mixes well with the tomato and lemon juices and makes for a delicious dish (but I realize not everyone likes their rice to have a little broth with it, so you can cook it down until the rice has absorbed all the liquid).

On the other hand, if your rice is still too chewy and you find you have too little broth, add 1/2 cup more broth, bring it back up to a boil, and keep cooking covered for another 10 minutes. Repeat as needed.

2. Prepare the mixins.

Squeeze the lemon over a large bowl. I do this part first because it’s easy to capture stray seeds if there’s nothing else in the bowl yet.

Chop tomatoes and place them in the bowl as well. Pour the cooked hot rice straight out of the pan over the tomatoes and lemon and mix well. The tomatoes will cool the rice a bit so you can eat straight away.

If you’re making extra rice to save for later, I recommend setting this extra rice aside and not adding tomatoes or lemon to it yet. This way, when you reheat the rice and then add fresh tomato and lemon juice, it tastes like you just made the dish that day. However, if you already mixed in tomato and lemon, just reheat the whole thing (you’ll end up with a light tomato-lemon sauce as the tomato breaks down during re-heating) and then add a bit more chopped fresh tomato and lemon juice after you’ve reheated it. 

3. Enjoy!