Recipes

[LoLa]

Wild Rice Salad
(Recipe source: adapted from LA Times)

I can NOT even begin to tell you how incredibly yummy this is. I've made it as a side dish and have eaten it as a main dish. It's just that good. It's great this time of year but it's also good around the holidays as a 'different' side dish. Give it a try. You won't be disappointed!

Serves 4-6 as a side dish

Ingredients
1 cup wild rice
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/3 cup chopped toasted unsalted cashews
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1/3 cup finely chopped cucumber
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion

Dressing
3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Directions
Combine 4 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the rice. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the rice is tender, about 45 minutes. Drain well and cool. *Wild rice takes longer to cook then ‘normal’ rice which is why ‘wild rice blends’ aren’t very good. Each type of rice has a different cooking time, so to combine them all means they won’t all turn out as well as they should.

Drain the rice (if there is water left in the pot) and transfer the rice to a large bowl. While the rice is cooling, mix in the dried cranberries, pecans, cashews, green onion, celery, cucumber and red onion.

Mix the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, mustard and sugar in a blender. While the blender is running, gradually pour in the olive oil. Pour the dressing over the rice mixture and toss.

The salad can be made up to 3 days ahead of time and just chilled in fridge. I made this on a Sunday and was still eating it on a Wednesday and it still tasted FANTASTIC!!