This rice salad is a perfect accompaniment to many fall and winter dishes—roast chicken, stews, pork chops. You can use brown rice, wild rice (not really a rice at all), or a combination of the two.
Both wild rice and brown rice have a rich, nutty flavor that complements the cranberries and pecans, and the citrus in the dressing.
Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries and Pecans Recipe
PrintPrep the ingredients and make the dressing while the rice is cooking.
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice wild rice mix
- 2 1/3 cups water (see package instructions)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (toasted or un-toasted, your choice)
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 teaspoon grated orange peel
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Method
1 Make the rice: Use the amount of water for the rice according to instructions on the rice package. Typically straight brown rice is a 1:2 ratio of rice to water. Straight wild rice is a ratio of 1:3 of wild rice to water. For this brown rice wild rice mix that I got from a bin (no package) I used a ratio of 1 cup of rice to 2 1/3 cups of water.
Bring rice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and water to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 50 minutes. Do not stir. Do not uncover.
Remove from stove and let sit, covered for 10 minutes.
Then uncover, fluff up with a fork, and let cool to almost room temperature.
2 Mix the rice with the dried cranberries, pecans, green onions: In a medium sized serving bowl, mix the rice, cranberries, pecans, and green onions together.
3 Make the dressing: In a separate jar, mix the lemon juice, olive oil, orange peel, and salt and pepper to taste.
Just before serving, mix dressing in with the rice mixture. Serve warm, chilled, or room temperature.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries and Pecans
I want to use dried currants, but they can be hard. Can I cook them in with the rice?
I didn’t make this exact recipe but I’ve made a similar salad (also, a hot side dish with fresh herbs) from pure wild rice but you first have to “bloom” it. No brown rice or any other is necessary.
In a heavy saucepan, bring several cups of water to a boil. Add wild rice. Immediately turn off heat, stir and cover for one hour. After an hour, bring more water to a boil in a kettle. Drain the rice in a sieve, return to the saucepan and add the boiling water with a pinch of salt. Cover and wait another hour. If all rice is not bloomed, repeat, cool and construct your salad.
It sounds like a pain but pure bloomed wild rice has a flavor and texture like no other. You are poaching the wild rice and not boiling it. It makes a major difference.
My personal preference for these fall flavors would be chopped toasted hazelnuts and dressed with hazelnut oil instead of pecans and olive oil. And maybe some chopped chervil. But that’s just me.
Has anyone tried this without the onion? I can’t stomach raw onion anymore. Will it ruin the dish if I leave it out?
Just wondering how far in advance I can make this. Today is Sunday and I want it for Thanksgiving. But I don’t have time to do it last minute. Make it now and refrigerate? Can it be frozen, before putting on the dressing?
Hi Jill, you can make the recipe a day or two ahead, but not more than that without it suffering.
Would it be ok to use fresh cranberries in this recipe?
No, they would be too sour. Dried cranberries are sweetened, which you need to balance the sourness. ~Elise