This wild rice salad recipe is easy and bursting with taste, with crunchy veggies, pecans, cranberries, a zingy dressing, and feta cheese!
Right here’s a hearty fall and winter aspect dish that’s simply begging to leap onto your desk: wild rice salad! This mixture of rice with crunchy veggies, pecans, cranberries, and feta cheese crumbles is good for any event, from the vacations to a easy cozy dinner. A maple Dijon French dressing dressing infuses a tangy taste all through, punctuated by bursts of recent parsley. It’s fairly easy to place collectively, and straightforward to make forward. Aspect dish issues, solved!
What you want for wild rice salad
Wild rice is ideal for fall and winter recipes, however do you know it’s not technically rice? It’s the seed from a local grass that grows in lakes and streams within the Northern US and Canada. However because it appears a lot prefer it, wild rice is handled as rice in most cuisines. It was an vital staple to Native People within the higher Nice Lakes space of the US. (I’m from Minnesota initially, so wild rice was a part of the heritage and historical past of the place I lived rising up!)
This wild rice salad makes use of a wild rice mix, which mixes wild rice with numerous varieties of rice (most frequently brown). This makes it each extra economical and a greater texture for a salad! Right here’s what you’ll want for wild rice salad:
- Pantry elements: Wild rice mix, salt, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, maple syrup or sugar, olive oil, pecans, dried cranberries
- Contemporary elements: Celery, inexperienced onions, Italian parsley
- Dairy: Feta cheese crumbles (omit for vegan and add extra salt to style)
Notes on utilizing wild rice mix
A wild rice mix is ideal for utilizing in a salad, as a result of the feel of untamed rice by itself might be reasonably heavy. Usually wild rice blends will use brown rice, and generally different varieties like purple and black rice. This makes the mix less expensive to supply and it has a softer general texture, making it simpler to eat than straight wild rice.
On this recipe, you should use any package deal marked “wild rice mix.” Cooking directions might range relying on the model, so use the timing and liquid specified on the package deal if it differs from this recipe.
Does this work with 100% wild rice?
This wild rice salad additionally works with pure wild rice! If all you could have is pure wild rice, you should use that too. The prepare dinner time is actually the identical, however you’ll use extra water and drain extra liquid after cooking (vs letting the water take up within the wild rice mix methodology). Merely make the next adjustments:
- Use 2 ½ cups water as a substitute of 1 ¾ cups.
- Simmer 45 to 50 minutes, till the rice is cut up and tender. (Many of the grains will cut up, however not all: see this photograph.) If a lot of the grains aren’t cut up, proceed to prepare dinner, including extra water if essential.
- As soon as cooked, drain any extra liquid.
Customizing this wild rice salad recipe
This wild rice salad recipe is filled with goodness, that includes the autumnal flavors of celery, inexperienced onion and parsley in opposition to nutty pecans and candy cranberries. Need to swap out among the elements to make it your individual, or add a few of your favourite objects to the combination? Listed here are just a few concepts:
- Chopped apple
- Pomegranate seeds (add or use instead of cranberries)
- Dried cherries
- Pumpkin seeds
- Walnuts
- Child arugula
- Contemporary rosemary or sage (use solely very small quantities, to style)
Extra grain salads and aspect dishes
This wild rice salad is one of the best fall and winter aspect. It’s a terrific fall salad or Thanksgiving aspect dish, it really works for Christmas, and it’s versatile to make use of at any type of dinner. Pair it with hen, baked salmon or vegetarian dinners for a hearty, filling aspect. Listed here are just a few extra nice aspect dishes to attempt:
This wild rice salad recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, omit the feta cheese crumbles.
Description
This wild rice salad recipe is easy and bursting with taste, with crunchy veggies, pecans, cranberries, a zingy dressing, and feta cheese!
- 1 cup raw wild rice mix (mixture of brown and wild**)
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
- 2 inexperienced onions, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped recent Italian parsley
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup feta cheese crumbles (optionally available; omit for vegan)
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- Rinse the rice in a effective mesh strainer beneath chilly water. Add the rice to a saucepan with 1 ¾ cup water and if desired, 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter (optionally available). Convey to a boil, then cut back to a low simmer and prepare dinner for 45 minutes or till all of the liquid is absorbed (see notes* and **). Cowl and permit to face and steam for 10 minutes. Stir in ¼ teaspoon kosher salt. Then pour the rice onto a sheet pan in a single layer and place it within the freezer for five minutes till the rice is room temperature. (Or, you can also make the rice forward and refrigerate till serving, as much as 2 days.)
- In the meantime, put together the celery, inexperienced onion, and parsley as famous within the directions above.
- In a small bowl, whisk collectively the white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt.
- When the rice is cooked and cooled, combine it in a big bowl with the chopped greens, dressing, feta cheese crumbles, dried cranberries, and chopped pecans. If desired, add just a few feta crumbles and pecans to the highest for serving.
- The salad tastes finest recent, however shops as much as 3 days refrigerated. For make forward, prepare dinner the rice and blend the dressing prematurely and refrigerate. Add all salad elements collectively earlier than serving.
Notes
*You should use any package deal marked “wild rice mix” that incorporates a mixture of wild rice with different varieties of rice, together with brown, purple and black. Cooking directions might range relying on the model, so use the timing and liquid specified on the package deal if it differs from this recipe.
**If all you could have is pure wild rice, you should use that too. Use 2 ½ cups water as a substitute of 1 3/4. Simmer 45 to 50 minutes, till the rice is cut up and tender. (Many of the grains will cut up, however not all: see the photograph.) If not, proceed to prepare dinner till most grains are cut up, including extra water if essential. When the rice is cooked, drain extra liquid.
- Class: Aspect dish
- Technique: Stovetop
- Delicacies: American
- Food regimen: Vegetarian
Key phrases: Wild rice salad, wild rice salad recipe
