Wild Rice Salad – Hearty wild rice is tossed in a tangy vinaigrette with dried cranberries, sliced almonds, corn, and red onion to make for a delicious salad that will completely shock you
Some of my favorite recipes to share are my recreations of meals I’ve loved from restaurants. My latest obsession was a side dish that I ordered on a whim because I wanted something refreshing. It’s the Wild Rice Salad from Houston’s Restaurant. From the first bite, I was in love. I was immediately shocked by the punch of flavor from the vinaigrette. I love a great, simple vinaigrette. It really can take a dish from “bleh” to “pow!”
In honor of the spring season, I thought I’d share this dish that is both bright in color and flavor. It’s super simple to make and can be made at the beginning of the week and enjoyed little by little each day. Or make it for a BBQ as an alternative to the potato or macaroni salads you’ve been enjoying over the years.
Without further ado, here is my Wild Rice Salad!
How to make this salad
This salad is just as simple as any other salad you’ve made. The most time consuming part is cooking the rice. Wild rice is super hearty so the grain takes some time to cook, about 40 minutes. This is a lot longer than traditional white rice, which takes about 20 minutes.
Once the rice is cooked, it’s added to the homemade vinaigrette, along with dried cranberries, corn, sliced almonds, red onion, and fresh parsley. Combine them all together and the salad is done! Simple as that!
Tips & Tricks
- This recipe calls for a wild rice blend, which is wild rice plus some brown rice. If you cannot find a wild rice blend in stores, simply use 1/2 cup of wild rice and 1/2 cup of brown rice. You pay have to cook them separately if the cooking instructions are different.
- Wild rice takes a long time to cook so make sure you give yourself enough time to cook the rice and to let it cool to room temperature before assembling the salad.
- When cooking the rice, do not add seasoning. The dressing used in the salad has seasoning so you don’t want to risk over seasoning it. It’s always better to under season and add more salt than over season and not be able to fix it.
Wild Rice Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice/brown rice blend
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
- ½ cup cooked corn kernels
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons chopped red onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
For the dressing:
- ½ clove garlic minced
- 1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Cook wild rice blend according to package instructions. Do not season the rice. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, add all dressing ingredients. Taste dressing and add more seasoning, if necessary. Add rice, almonds, dried cranberries, corn, onion, and parsley. Toss together to combine. Serve immediately or chill until planning to serve. Salad will stay good in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
Pin for later:
More recipes you’ll love:
Citrus Almond Salad
Lemon Avocado Pasta Salad
Apple Pecan Farro Salad
Yum! That looks so good!
This is nice to have some other ideas to use rice in. We have rice with pork or mixed with some quinoa.
Yumm this looks so so good!! I love rice, I need to make this recipe so tasty!
Yum this is a perfect dish for a meatless Monday, which we try to do every week over here at our place. While we are not vegan or vegetarian we fall into a Pecastarian relm and the meatless options help to keep us on track, can’t wait to try this one!
This sounds, and looks like, one of the very best wild rice salad recipes I’ve ever seen! I pinned it so I can surprise my boyfriend with something a little different this weekend! 🙂
Simple yet delicious! Thanks for the lunch idea! Even my kids enjoyed it with a baked sweet potato.
This salad looks seriously amazing! I love the simple combination of ingredients and the dressing sounds to die for ! Can’t wait to make this on the weekend.
I made this for my hubby and I for lunch, and it’s so delicious! We devoured this salad and I’ll definitely make this again!
This honestly looks so quick and easy to make, and my gut tells me that this is a hearty and filling meal. Thank you for sharing this recipe! I’ll make sure to try it this weekend.
So flavorful and filling! Love it!