Wild Rice Salad Recipe – how to make the best easy and healthy wild rice salad with orange and feta cheese – with the video tutorial.
Wild Rice Salad Recipe
This wild rice salad recipe is one of the best ways to enjoy the nutritious ingredient that has a whole host of health benefits.
You can make the salad as a main dish or as the perfect side dish with with a holiday meal, on a special occasion or at any time through the year.
The Salad Ingredients
Here are the complete list of ingredients that you’ll need for the salad, all of which are easy to find at grocery stores.
Wild Rice – my local store sells a bag of nutty wild rice for just €1.35, making this a budget friendly dish to put together. You may find your local store sells different varieties of wild rice including black rice or a wild rice blend. (For more budget inspiration, here’s my top 20 Gluten Free Aldi Products.)
You can also feel free to include a mix of wild rice, brown rice and white rice if you’d prefer to enjoy mixed rice salads.
My bag of wild rice suggested 40 to 45 minutes of cooking time, yours may be different depending on the variety, so just taste it when you think it’s done and cook until the wild rice has softened to your liking.
Water or Stock – cover the wild rice with water or your choice of vegetable or chicken stock for extra flavor.
Spinach – a few handfuls of leafy green spinach are mixed through to add a pop of color to the otherwise monotone salad and of course the extra nutrition is beneficial too. You can include baby spinach, salad greens or kale to create a wild rice and kale salad.
Orange – I’ve included orange zest and orange juice in the easy recipe. You can feel free to swap for lemon zest and fresh lemon juice or lime zest and lime juice, if you’d prefer.
Olive Oil – a drizzling of extra virgin olive oil adds healthy fats and moisture. I prefer to drizzle the salad dressing ingredients directly over the salad, but you can feel free to whisk them together in a small bowl and then drizzle the mixed delicious dressing over the salad.
I’ve suggested 2 to 4 tablespoons because it depends on how much orange juice you end up adding and how moist you’d like your salad to be.
Apple Cider Vinegar and Maple Syrup – these ingredients help balance the flavor of the salad and give lots of flavor.
Feta Cheese – creamy feta makes a great addition to the salad for protein and the unique salty flavor that the ingredient brings to recipes. You can feel free to swap the cheese for goat cheese or parmesan cheese, if you’d like.
Seasoning – salt and black pepper can be added to season the salad, and you can feel free to add in your seasonings of choice as well.
Extra ingredients – you can feel free to add any of the following ingredients in to create your own perfect salad – green onions, red onion, green beans, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, pomegranate arils or pomegranate seeds, cranberries, Dijon mustard, chopped sweet apples or toasted pecans or walnuts.
Wild Rice Salad Recipe
- 1 Cup Wild Rice
- 4 Cups of Water or Stock
- Spinach Leaves
- 1/2 to 1 Orange
- 2-4 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Maple Syrup
- 100g/3.5 oz Feta Cheese
- Salt & Black Pepper, to taste
- Place the wild rice in a saucepan, cover with water or stock, place on the stove top over medium to high heat and bring up to the boil and cover with a lid.
- Reduce to a simmer and cook for 40 to 45 minutes, or according to the cooking time on your package.
- Once the wild rice has cooked to your liking, remove from the heat, rinse to cool, drain any excess liquid over a sieve and then move the cooked rice to a large bowl, serving bowl or airtight container.
- Add a few handful of spinach leaves to the cooked wild rice, grate over the zest of the orange and squeeze the orange juice over a sieve to catch any pips, then toss to combine.
- Drizzle over the olive oil, apple cider vinegar and maple syrup, then crumble over the feta and shake over the salt.
- Toss well to combine then enjoy immediately at room temperature or pop into the fridge and enjoy the cold wild rice salad within a day or two.
Wild Rice Recipe Video
Here’s the video where you can watch the perfect salad and orange vinaigrette being prepared, step by step. Hit play below or click here to watch on YouTube.
More Easy Salad Recipes
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