This Wild Rice Salad features crunchy pecans, sweet apples, and dried cranberries. It’s the perfect side dish for a holiday menu!
This recipe comes from my friend Jenn’s book, Once Upon a Chef, the Cookbook. It’s the perfect salad to bring to a Thanksgiving dinner and lends itself well to leftovers.
Add some leftover turkey on top for a lighter post-Thanksgiving meal, or serve it with some chickpeas for some plant-based protein, instead.
It’s also delicious when served with baked chicken breasts or stuffed into a baked sweet potato!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Wild rice is naturally gluten-free and has more protein per serving than brown rice. It takes slightly longer to cook than other varieties of rice and results in a tender, chewy texture you’ll love.
Paired with crunchy nuts, dried fruit, and diced veggies, this wild rice salad recipe is loaded with flavor. This recipe calls for toasted pepitas (which are hulled pumpkin seeds) but if you can’t find those at the store, sliced almonds, walnuts, or pistachios will also work.
It’s also easy to customize! Add crumbled feta cheese or goat’s cheese for creaminess, or sprinkle in some pomegranate seeds for extra festive color. You can also add in diced red onion or some spicy arugula if you’d like to bulk it up even more.
For another variation, you can replace the fresh orange juice and zest with the lemon zest and lemon juice from 1 lemon. Either way, it’s delicious!
How to Make the Best Wild Rice Salad
To prepare the rice, rinse it well in a fine mesh strainer. (This will improve the texture.) Transfer the rinsed rice to a medium saucepan, add 3/4 teaspoon of salt, and cover it with 4 cups of water.
Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and cover the pot. Let the rice gently simmer for 50 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and let it sit with the lid on for an additional 10 minutes.
The cooked rice should split open when it’s done, and there will most likely be excess water in the pot. Drain the rice in a fine mesh strainer to remove the excess water and set it aside to cool.
While the rice is cooking, combine the orange juice, orange zest, dijon mustard, extra-virgin olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl. Whisk well to combine the vinaigrette.
Add in the diced celery, apple, pecans, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, parsley, and green onions. Toss well to coat everything in the dressing.
When the rice has cooled down, stir that in and adjust any seasoning to taste.
Let the salad marinate for at least 30 minutes in the fridge before serving. The flavors will get even better as they meld together.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can prepare the rice and vinaigrette up to 3 days in advance, but wait to stir in the nuts, chopped apple, and fresh parsley until shortly before serving. This will give you the freshest flavor and texture.
If you don’t have wild rice on hand, you can swap it for cooked quinoa to keep this recipe gluten-free. Or use any other cooked grain you love! (Farro would work well here, too.)
You can cook the wild rice in the Instant Pot by combining 1 cup of rinsed wild rice with 1 1/2 cups water. Cook at high pressure for 25 minutes, then let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes after that.
If you swap the honey for maple syrup, this salad is vegan-friendly.
Looking for more holiday side dishes? Try my Easy Butternut Squash Soup, Homemade Cranberry Sauce, and Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes for more ideas.
Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries & Pecans
Ingredients
- 1 cup wild rice , rinsed
- 4 cups water
- 1 ¼ teaspoons fine sea salt (divided)
- ½ teaspoon orange zest
- ¼ cup fresh orange juice , from one orange
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup toasted pecans , roughly chopped
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 2 celery ribs , diced
- 1 apple , peeled, cored, and diced
- ¼ cup roasted and salted pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)
- 2 green onions , light and green parts, thinly sliced
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine the rice, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, and 4 cups of water. Bring the liquid to a boil, then turn the heat down to low. Cover and simmer for 50 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat but keep the lid on for an additional 10 minutes. Remove the lid and make sure the rice is tender, with most of the grains split open. Transfer the rice to a fine-mesh strainer to drain any excess water. Let cool.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the orange zest, orange juice, olive oil, vinegar, honey, mustard, pepper, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add the cooled rice, pecans, dried cranberries, parsley, celery, apple, pepitas, and scallions. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if desired. Serve cold or at room temperature.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you try this Wild Rice Salad recipe, please leave a comment and star rating below letting me know how you like it.
I am loving this recipe, thanks for sharing!
I’m thinking instead of cranberries what about pomegranate seeds? Do you think that would be a good substitute? I have people that don’t like cranberries, how can you not like cranberries they are like the ultimate Christmas berry! Can’t wait to make this.
Hi there …. I made this recipe and have a few thoughts. I LOVE the recipes form Once Upon a Chef. Anyway … Dried cranberries aren’t an equivalent for pomegranate seeds because dried cranberries are sweetened and their texture and flavor profile are totally different. They’re basically red raisins with more acidity. So … I would suggest using dried apricots for the umami fruity component, and then toss in some pomegranate arils for a pop of tart (not to be confused with pop tarts). 🙂
4 cups of water for 1 cup of rice is about double what it should be. I use 2 cups of water and the rice is perfect.
I made a batch for a whole week’s worth of lunch for two! So delicious and so easy
Recipe looks good and with two modifications, it can be made vegan. One is the subbing of maple syrup or other sweetener for the honey. The other sub needed is a different mustard as Dijon is made with wine which has multiple non-vegan products used in making wine.
Loved this recipe! Using items we had on hand, I substituted red onion for scallions and used sunflower seeds instead of pumpkin seeds and it was still a hit for my family. Thanks!
Your version sounds closest to a salad from a restaurant i have been trying to recreate. It also had a smaller raisin (not as string as a currant) or as big as thompsons. I found them once at a small chain grocery store but not yet where we live now.
Thanks for your suggestions!
I made this salad today, the rice was so yummy!….. I made a change, I didn’t have celery to i used roasted rhubarb. Everything taste fresh and delicious!
Made this as lunch meal prep for the week. I plan to have chicken or hard boiled egg on the side for protein. Didn’t have celery or pepitas but the salad still turned out wonderfully!
Wow, this wild rice salad is so good! I made it for a fall picnic, and it was a hit! The flavors and textures are perfectly balanced, so you get the chewiness and nuttiness of the rice playing off the crisp apple and celery, and pops of sweetness from the cranberries. The orange vinaigrette adds an unexpected, but beautiful citrus undertone. I’ll be making this again and again.
Interested in the nutritional information; how many grams in a serving?
Great recipe! This was delicious and easy. The hardest part of this salad was chopping the parsley. To make it vegan I swapped out honey for maple syrup. Because I had blueberries and not crasins I made that swap too. I made the rice in the rice cooker and reduced the amount of water by 1/2 cup. My dinner companions found it delicious as well – so I shared the recipe iwth them. Will definately make again.
Absolutely perfect harvest salad! I used lemon instead of orange and added some feta cheese. So good! Thank you!
This is the best rice salad I’ve ever had! I love the orange vinaigrette, it complements the wild rice, fruit, nuts, and celery so well. The texture of the salad is great too, with the chewy rice and nuts and the crunchy apple and celery.
Hi, I think perhaps the recipe should read two sticks of celery rather than stalks. Two stalks would be a heck of a lot of celery.
Ahh, thanks for catching that! Just fixed it.
This is just what we were looking for. it is going on our Christmas Eve menu. Thank you for the inspiration.
I just now made a BIG batch of this salad to use for my daughter’s baby shower tomorrow. I taste tested it and its truly delicious. My only problem was in multiplying the ingredient list. I know that the website has the increase in ingredients, but it would be so very helpful to not have raw rice to measure, but the finished rice amount to use. I bought a package of wild rice (only one in the store) and a wild rice blend. I cooked both separately and would’ve loved to have seen how much to use of the finished rice in my recipe for 14 people. I’m guessing because I made lots of extra rice (kept extra aside) and will see how this absorbs the dressing and maybe play with the extra dressing and rice tomorrow before serving it up. Lovely salad though and I’ll make again! 🙂
This was delicious!!! My very picky family absolutely loved it!! Will be making it again!!
What a tasty dish that pairs well with so many things. Thank you for sharing.
I think honey smoked salmon would be a great addition to this salad with some greens and blueberries.
Very nice write-up. I absolutely love this site. Continue the good work!
Perfect! Used a wild rice blend and just followed package directions. With nuts and seeds it was hearty enough to be a meal on its own but we had it along side rotisserie chicken, perfect for a heat wave dinner. I love Once Upon a Chef and this was another keeper!
I love this recipe! It’s hearty and even my boyfriend likes it, that’s saying something. I didn’t have pepitas but was still fabulous regardless.
Really enjoyed this! I left out apples and celery but added chopped dried apricots bc that’s what I had. It turned out delicious! Will definitely make again.
This is a fantastic wild rice salad recipe, thank you so much! I’ve made it exactly as written and I’ve also substituted apples with grapes. It’s so versatile. I think you could use just about any fruit you have available!
Brought it to my church picnic, people who normally wouldn’t try what they perceive as healthy loved it. It was very tasty! Well balanced and great tooth feel. How long can leftovers be stored in the fridge?
This is a perfect dish to serve at the Thanksgiving table. Everyone enjoyed it and served themselves second helpings I made one modification; I modified the recipe just a bit by substituting maple syrup for the honey.
This salad is delicious!! The multiple textures and all the different flavors that blend together make this a huge hit!
Question about a possible addition?? I love this recipe but do you think adding roasted butternut squash chunks would work well in this salad too?
Yes, I think that would be delicious! Hope you enjoy it.
See your recipe to try to recreate a restaurant salad I had a good 5-7 years ago. I left out the Italian parsley as I am not a fan of the overpowering flavor of parsley. Unfortunately, I feel the salad tastes rather bland without it. Any thoughts on a substitute spice or additional ingredients that might punch up the flavor? I did add diced dried apricots.
Just did a swift search for a quick salad dressing on your website because it’s the place that immediately comes to mind for ideas. I’d run out of my usual go-to lemons so needed quick inspiration. This dressing is delicious, I didn’t have honey and don’t have an overly sweet tooth so I just used 1 teaspoon of maple syrup, great flavours, thanks
This is a great, fresh salad. It is going to be on my repeat list for sure!
Wild rice is a grain, not a rice. It is not comparable to brown rice or any other.