Right here is my highest Wild Rice Salad recipe made with oranges, dried cranberries, apricots and avocado. It’s a scrumptious make-ahead facet dish for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hanukkah (or any celebration actually!) It’s naturally vegan pleasant (simply see the notes under) and it goes effectively with pork, fish and roasted meats.
This recipe was initially impressed by the idea of the Nutted Wild Rice Salad within the Silver Palate cookbook. I shared it right here on December sixteenth, 2014. I’ve up to date the textual content, added a video and added new pictures right this moment. This put up incorporates affiliate hyperlinks.
Why We Love Wild Rice Salad Recipe
This Wild Rice Salad with oranges, pecans, avocado and dried friut is a superb facet dish to serve for the vacation season, or for a summer time facet dish for a picnic or potluck occasion.
This salad made with complete grains would be the star of the desk! The candy and savory substances pair effectively with a wide range of meals. It’s nice served chilly so it additionally occurs to be an ideal make-ahead dish to serve for entertaining.
Elements Notes For This Recipe
Wild Rice
- Wild rice is definitely not the identical sort of plant because the brown rice and white rice we all know, and it truly is the seeds of grasses native to North America.
- It has been wild-harvested since earlier than European settlers got here to the US.
- Whereas wild rice continues to be wild harvested, it has additionally been commercially produced for the reason that Nineteen Fifties.
Examine shopping tips for Wild Rice here. In case you can’t discover it for this recipe or favor a inexpensive different, wild rice mix can be utilized as a substitute. Observe the cooking directions on the bundle for wild rice mix as it’s completely different than wild rice.
Oranges or Tangerines
This recipe calls for 3 oranges (or tangerines.) The primary one is zested and juiced for the dressing. The remaining two are segmented. Achieve this with a pointy knife over a small bowl to catch the juices. This manner it can save you the orange juice and add it to the salad too. In case you missed my recipe for Cranberry Sauce with Orange, then you definately’ll wish to evaluate my recommendations on how to segment an orange on Youtube.
Pecans
Pecans and different nuts are harvested within the fall and winter, and are frequent additions to vacation meals. I really like the buttery and nutty style of pecans on this wild rice salad. To convey out their pure flavors, toast them. My prefered manner to do that is to make use of the toaster oven, simply make sure that to set an extra timer, as a result of they’re very straightforward to burn!
Dried Cranberries and Apricots
Search for pure dried fruit that’s sweetened with juice and made with out sulphur if you’re delicate. Unsulphured apricots style higher in my view, however they don’t seem to be as fairly as these with sulphur, since they flip brown once they’re dried. I wish to take my time to chop the apricots into little squares. They seem like jewels on this salad!
Parsley
This 12 months I grew flat parsley in my backyard, in order that’s what variety I used right this moment, however curly parsley can be nice too. It’s fairly a little bit of parsley, nearly like for tabbouleh, nevertheless it actually provides a pleasant freshness to the salad and the inexperienced actually makes the colours pop!
Easy methods to Make Wild Rice Salad
My wild rice salad recipe is made in levels. First you cook dinner the wild rice and make the dressing. As soon as the rice is tender, drain it and toss it with the dressing and let it cool. Final stir within the fruits, herbs and nuts earlier than serving. Listed below are some extra particulars about find out how to cook dinner the rice, in regards to the dressing and find out how to make the wild rice salad upfront.
Step 1. Cook dinner The Wild Rice
Simmer wild rice in a beneficiant quantity of gently boiling water till tender, about 45 minutes. Pressure by means of a high-quality mesh sieve.
Step 2. Making The Dressing
Whilst you’re ready for the wild rice to simmer and soften, you can also make the dressing. Add the orange zest and juice to a blender. Scoop ¼ avocado into the blender. Add shallot, oil, vinegar, mustard, honey or agave and salt and puree till clean.
Step 3: Stir the Dressing and Sizzling Cooked Rice Collectively
Whereas the rice remains to be steaming sizzling, stir it with the dressing and let it cool. The rice will soak up the flavors of the dressing and can make the general style of the wild rice salad higher. This is identical approach I exploit with my potato salad and pasta salad recipes and it makes an enormous distinction.
Tip: Unfold the rice out on a big baking sheet lined with parchment to assist it cool extra shortly.
Step 4: Add the Salad Elements
Stir the cooled wild rice and dressing with the toasted pecans, dried fruits and orange segments. The avocado ought to be added final as a result of it’s so mushy, so I wish to stir the whole lot else in first, then fold within the avocado on the finish. Season salad with extra salt and pepper if obligatory.
Skilled Suggestions and FAQs For This Recipe
This salad will be made 1 day forward. Convey to room temperature stirring often for half-hour or so earlier than serving. Wait till earlier than serving so as to add the diced avocado.
Use agave or maple syrup as a substitute of honey within the dressing.
Retailer leftovers in an hermetic container as much as 3 days. The avocado chunks will brown, however it’ll nonetheless style scrumptious! If the flavors are barely muted after a day or two, perk them up with a squeeze of citrus.
Wild rice is grown within the shallow waters of streams, and Native American harvesting strategies included threshing the grasses into their canoes. A really labor intensive strategy to collect the seeds. Immediately this can be a rather more mechanized course of, however it’s nonetheless costly to provide, and explains the excessive price ticket on the market
Most varieties of untamed rice take about 45 to 50 minutes to cook dinner. Observe bundle directions as a result of there are at the very least 4 completely different species of untamed rice, so that they range in cooking instances.
After checking with the bundle directions to get a suggestion of cooking time, one of the best ways to check whether it is carried out is to search for the rice grains beginning to cut up. You’ll see that they not look shiny black, however they’ll have somewhat line of tan working alongside the size of the grain. As they soften increasingly they’ll begin to bend. Watch out to not cook dinner them a lot that they curl up. The feel will not be pleasantly chewy, however will grow to be watery and mushy.
Shopping for Wild Rice
Search for wild rice within the rice part of the grocery store. It’s out there in baggage and bins.
I like to recommend shopping for wild rice in bulk so that you simply solely purchase the quantity you want for a given recipe. Whereas it’ll retailer effectively in a cool dry pantry, as a result of it’s unrefined, the pure oils in it will possibly go rancid over time, so plan to make use of it inside a 12 months. I wish to retailer wild rice in a big dry broad mouth jar.
Lundberg Farms (my favourite model of rice) now sells quick-cooking wild rice. In case you discover that, ensure you observe the cooking directions on the packaging, because it cooks a lot sooner.
What To Serve With Wild Rice Salad
Variations To Strive
- Add chopped cooked rooster or leftover turkey for a little bit of protein to make this right into a hearty salad for lunch.
- Serve over a mattress of peppery arugula, watercress and romaine lettuce. Drizzle with extra salad dressing if desired or simply squeeze on somewhat recent lemon juice and olive oil to decorate the greens. High with goat cheese.
- As an alternative of dried cranberries use recent pomegranate arils.
- Omit the avocado and use a creamy feta like goat feta as a substitute. The orange and feta cheese are a tremendous pairing!
- Use pinenuts, hazelnuts or walnuts as a substitute of pecans.
- For an opulent contact, strive utilizing a connoisseur nut oil as a substitute of the olive oil. I really like utilizing walnut oil in dressings and adore the buttery taste of hazelnut oil!
Extra Grain Aspect Dishes To Strive
Thanks a lot for studying. In case you are new right here, it’s your decision to join my free weekly email newsletter the place I share weeknight meal plans delivered proper to your inbox. Or observe me on Instagram. In case you make this recipe, please come again and go away a star score and evaluate! It is rather appreciated. Completely satisfied Cooking! ~Katie
Description
Right here is my highest Wild Rice Salad recipe, that’s made with dried cranberries and apricots, oranges, pecans and avocado. An ideal wholesome, make-ahead facet dish for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hanukkah.
- 2 cups wild rice
- 3 oranges or tangerines, divided
- 1 avocado, minimize in half and pit eliminated
- 1 small shallot, peeled and quartered
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons purple wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons honey or agave
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped parsley
- 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
- ½ cup dried sweetened cranberries
- ½ cup chopped dried apricots
- Place rice in a big saucepan. Cowl generously with water. Convey to a simmer over excessive warmth. Cut back warmth to medium-low or to take care of a simmer, and cook dinner till the rice is simply tender however not mushy, 45 to50 minutes.
- Zest and juice one orange. Phase the remaining two oranges, and put aside.
- Add the orange zest and juice to a blender. Scoop ¼ avocado into the blender. Add shallot, oil, vinegar, mustard, honey or agave and salt and puree till clean. Pour into a big bowl.
- Stir the new rice into the dressing and let cool to room temperature, 35 to 42 minutes.
- Stir in parsley, pecans, cranberries, apricots and the reserved orange segments.
- Cube the remaining avocado and gently stir into the salad.
Notes
Vegan Choice: This recipe is vegan should you use agave as a substitute of honey.
Wild rice is completely different from brown and white rice in that it’s truly a wild grass. Search for it within the rice isle. Retailer it in a sealed container or jar at room temperature.
To cook dinner wild rice, simmer it in water till the grains cut up and are tender (style a small chew to examine.) Most varieties take about 45 minutes, however examine packaging the place relevant. Be sure the water doesn’t dip under the floor degree in order that the rice cooks evenly. Drain it as you’d pasta by means of a high-quality mesh sieve.
To phase the 2 oranges or tangerines, observe the instructions here in my step-by-step video.
To Make In Advance: Put together by means of step 4 as much as 2 days upfront. Proceed with step 5 simply earlier than serving.
- Prep Time: 28 minutes
- Cook dinner Time: 45 minutes
- Class: Aspect dish
- Methodology: Range High
- Delicacies: American
Vitamin
- Serving Dimension: 2/3 cup
- Energy: 236
- Sugar: 9 g
- Sodium: 179 mg
- Fats: 13 g
- Saturated Fats: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 27 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 2.6 g
Key phrases: wild rice salad, wild rice facet dish, wild rice with orange, wild rice with pecans
