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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.
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.
Interested in the nutritional information; how many grams in a serving?
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
I made a batch for a whole week’s worth of lunch for two! So delicious and so easy
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’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). 🙂
I am loving this recipe, thanks for sharing!