Like most people, I have a few go-to autumn salad recipes that I make during the holidays. They are those dishes that I have been making for many years and have been able perfect over time. This Wild Rice Salad recipe is one of them.
Plus, here at Foolproof Living, we love wild rice. I know you like it too because two of our most popular fall recipes, Wild Rice Stuffing and Wild Rice Pilaf, feature this magical ingredient.
Originally shared by Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa), this cold wild rice salad recipe is a great way to brighten your holiday table with some color and sweet and savory flavors. Plus, it is a great make-ahead salad recipe that you can serve cold, which I think is the best part because you can get it ready a day before and put it on the table right before dinner.
That being said, it is also a great salad for potlucks and summer picnics, as it pairs well with grilled meats and veggies.
Ingredients:
You will need two sets of ingredients to make this wild rice and grape salad recipe:
For the wild rice salad dressing, you’ll need:
- Olive oil
- Orange juice and zest (preferably freshly squeezed)
- Kosher salt and pepper
For the salad, you’ll need:
- Cooked and cooled wild rice
- Grapes
- Sliced oranges
- Scallions
- Dried cranberries
- Pecans (or walnuts)
- Pomegranate seeds
Substitutions and Optional Additions:
- Wild rice: While wild rice is the main ingredient in salad, you can also use wild rice blend, black rice, or even quinoa in this recipe.
- Green Onions: You can use red onions or shallots if you are out of scallions.
- Fruit: If you make this recipe during the fall, you can use cubed apples instead of grapes. If you want to make it a summer wild rice salad, then I recommend using juicy peaches instead.
- Lemon juice & lemon zest: You can substitute lemon juice and lemon zest in the dressing. However, you will need to add in a sweetener like a tablespoon of agave, maple syrup, or even honey syrup to break the sour taste. On another note, red grapefruit can also substitute orange juice and zest to make this wild rice cranberry salad.
- Nuts: Walnuts and sliced or slivered almonds would also work in this salad.
- Salad Greens: If you want to turn it into a green salad, add a handful of spring mix, baby spinach, or arugula. I love to serve wild rice arugula salad for Thanksgiving dinner to add a pop of color to my holiday menu.
- Cheese: It is optional (and not used in Barefoot Contessa’s wild rice salad recipe), but a handful of feta cheese or goat’s cheese would be a lovely addition.
- Chicken: If you want to incorporate some protein in the salad, I recommend making my Baked Bone Chicken Breast, slicing it, and adding it. Chicken wild rice salad with grapes is a wonderful grab and go lunch that I make often.
How To Make Wild Rice Salad?
The recipe for this cold wild rice salad has 3 folds:
- Cook the wild rice: Place 1 cup of (rinsed) wild rice in a saucepan along with three cups of water (or vegetable stock) and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt over medium-high heat. Put the lid on, bring it to a boil, turn the heat down, and let it simmer for 40-50 minutes or until it is tender and most of the water is absorbed. Drain any excess water, let it cool, and use it in your salad.
- Prep the salad ingredients: Place cooked rice, grapes, orange slices, scallions, pecans, and cranberries in a large bowl. Set it aside.
- Make the dressing: Whisk together extra virgin olive oil, orange zest, orange juice, and salt and pepper.
- Assemble and rest: Drizzle the dressing over the wild rice mixture. If using, sprinkle it with pomegranate arils. Give it a gentle toss, taste for seasoning, and add if necessary. If you have the time, cover it with stretch film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.
How To Make Ahead and Store:
This wild rice pomegranate salad is ideal for meal prep or dinner parties as it can be made ahead and it stores well. Here is how I do it:
- Make-Ahead Instructions: You can make this holiday wild rice salad a day in advance. As a matter of fact, I recommend doing so, as it allows all the flavors to mingle and create an incredible flavor profile. Simply mix all the ingredients (including the dressing) in a large bowl a day in advance. Cover it with stretch film and store it in the fridge. Remove from the fridge an hour before you are ready to serve it so it can come to room temperature.
- To Store leftovers: Place the leftovers of this Minnesota wild rice salad in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
What To Serve it With?
This wild rice salad recipe goes well with many meat and vegetarian meals. Below are my favorites:
- Turkey recipes: It is no secret that wild rice recipes are popular as a side dish for Thanksgiving. I also serve this cranberry wild rice salad when I make my Marinated Turkey Tenderloin, Roasted Turkey Breast, and Baked Turkey Tenderloin recipes.
- Beef Dishes: Dishes with big flavors like my Pressure Cooker Pot Roast, Baked Meatball and Potatoes, and Vegetable Beef Soup pair very well with this salad.
- Vegetarian Meals: Serve with my Quinoa Stew or Cauliflower Curry for a filling vegetarian main dish.
Expert Tips:
While making this salad is pretty straightforward, below are a few helpful tips for the best wild rice salad recipe:
- Cooking wild rice: If you are new to cooking wild rice and want to learn more about it, visit our posts on how to cook wild rice. Whenever I make this salad recipe I plan ahead and soak my wild rice to reduce the cooking time. Alternatively, you can cook wild rice in the instant pot as well.
- Do not skip the orange zest: While it may look like a minor ingredient, orange zest adds a nice tang to the overall recipe and enhances the sweetness of the orange juice so do not skip it. Also, it is always easier to zest it before juicing the orange.
- Segmenting orange: While you can cut your orange into small pieces, I like segmenting it. If you are unfamiliar with it, essentially, it is the process of removing the chewy membrane of the orange slices. You end up with sweet orange slices that melt in the salad.
FAQs
Turkey and chicken recipes are ideal to serve with wild rice dishes, as their earthy flavors pair well with poultry.
While soaking wild rice for a few hours help shorten the cooking time, you do not have to soak wild rice before cooking.
Other Wild Rice Recipes You Might Like:
There you have it. A quick and easy-to-make wild rice salad recipe that is wholesome, filling, and festive with bursts of flavor in the form of oranges, grapes, cranberries, and pecans. Here are a few more wild rice recipes you might want to try:
- Lightened Up Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- Instant Pot Wild Rice Chicken Soup
- Wild Rice Pilaf recipe
- Wild Rice Stuffing for Turkey
This recipe has been adapted from Ina Garten’s Wild Rice Salad recipe with minor changes to the originally published recipe.
If you try this Wild Rice Salad with cranberries and pecans, please take a minute to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It is a great help to others who are thinking of making the recipe. And if you took some pictures, be sure to share them on Instagram using #foolproofeats so I can share them on my stories.
Diet Key
This Recipe is:
Wild Rice Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For The Wild Rice
- 1 cup wild rice, rinsed well
- 3 cups water, or vegetable stock
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
For The Wild Rice Salad
- 1 cup green grapes, cut in half
- 2 oranges, peeled and sliced
- 1/2 cup scallions, chopped – both green and white parts
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup pecans
- Handful of pomegranate arils for color, optional
For The Dressing
- 1 tablespoon orange zest, from one orange
- 1/2 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed (from one to two oranges)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- To cook the wild rice: Place wild rice, water (or stock), and salt in a saucepan with a lid over medium-high heat. Put the lid on and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and let is simmer for 40-45 minutes*. You will know that it is cooked when some of the kernels are burst open. Drain excess liquid (if any) and serve.
- Place cooked and cooled wild rice, grapes, orange slices, scallions, cranberries and pecans in a large salad bowl.
- To make the dressing: In a small mixing bowl, mix orange juice, orange zest, olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Pour the dressing over the wild rice salad. Give it a toss.
- If you have the time, allow it to sit for 30 minutes in the fridge for all the flavors to blend before serving. Serve.
Video
Notes
- Yields: This recipe makes about 5-6 cups of salad, which is ideal for serving 6 as a side dish. The nutritional values below are per serving.
- Plan ahead: Soaking wild rice in water for 2 hours can reduce the cooking time by half. However, I would not recommend soaking it longer than that. Alternatively, you can cook wild rice in a pressure cooker, which takes about 35 minutes.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: You can make this wild rice salad a day in advance. As a matter of fact, I recommend doing so, as it allows all the flavors to mingle and create an incredible flavor profile. Simply mix all the ingredients (including the dressing) in a large bowl, cover it with stretch film and store it in the fridge.
- To Store leftovers: Place leftovers in an airtight container and store them in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m in Australia, and for us Xmas is in summer when its hot, so last Xmas Day I made this salad
to go with Duck, fresh Prawns, Ham etc.
It was a smash hit.
Had to alter a few things. Added some extra fresh herbs and used packet pre cooked wild rice. Made it Xmas Eve overnight in the fridge.
Scrumptious🥰🥰🥰
YAY! So happy to hear that you enjoyed this wild rice salad recipe Vallimai. Thanks for sharing your experience and taking the time to leave a review.
Delicious salad. But it’s not a vinaigrette dressing without vinegar.
Thanks for your input Dana.
Best wild rice recipe I have ever made. Outstanding as a side dish. Great over salad. I made one small change toasting pecans in butter which I prefer and feel are slightly sweeter.
Hi Marc,
This makes me so happy to hear. And I would agree with you on toasting the pecans in butter. I am sure they tasted amazing.
Cheers!
I tried multiple times to download your free ebook but to no avail. Any suggestions.? I really was looking forward to the recipes.
Thank you
Jo Bodenstein
Just sent you an email with the link Jo. Please let me know if you don’t get it or need further assistance.
Thank you for a great salad! I am always looking for cool meals in the summer and this was easy to put together. I cooked the wild rice well and it absorbed the orange flavor well. I roasted the pecans for a little extra pop.
Next I’m looking for a fun way to pair wild rice and asparagus … any ideas, oh brilliant cook?
Hi Maggie,
So glad to hear that you liked it. Wild rice salads are a favorite in our house especially during the summer months.
I should come up with a great salad recipe made with asparagus and wild rice as they go SO well together.
Stay tuned… 🙂
Cheers!
Sorry to have to go against the grind here but I’ve tried this salad before and it was one of the most bland and boring things I’ve ever eaten in my entire life (I work in hospitality and have seen my fair share of different kinds of food over time).
The issue with a salad like this is that the wild rice serves no distinguished purpose in the recipe as it overloads the crunchiness which is already provided by the pecans.
Wild rice blocks the dressing from being able to properly bind to all of the ingredients meaning the flavours are competing with each other as the dressing is unable to act as a dressing and instead acts more like a side sauce; salad dressings are meant to bridge all of the ingredients but rice has a highly absorbent quality to it where it draws in lots of liquid while it’s cooking and afterwards when it’s mixed in with other liquid-based flavours.
A better alternative to wild rice for this salad would be something like shredded red cabbage plus dicing up the pecans; this will better balance out the flavour palate and make the dressing the vehicle of the show (the dressing is a good one).
Jared,
Thanks for your comment.
Interesting…
I am not sure how you cook your wild rice, but I usually cook mine to be soft. So I am not sure what you mean when you compare it to the crunch comes from the pecans.
This recipe happens to be one of my favorite lunch recipes that I make for myself often.
However, I respect people’s taste and preferences so I understand what you mean.
With that being said, I totally agree with the fact that the dressing and the filler ingredients (grapes, oranges, and scallions) used in this recipe would compliment the shredded red cabbage pretty well, especially if you let the cabbage marinade in the citrusy flavors of the dressing for a few hours.
Thanks for stopping by.
First of all, I agree that ‘crunchy’ isn’t what one is looking for in cooked wild rice… but I do think it’s a excellent sturdy or hardy vehicle for this dish.
Secondly, I loved your reply and think it was very gracious and respectful of the reviewer’s comment (but the comment was off base ) 😉
Thanks Sheila. I appreciate it.
I served this most extraordinary salad along with roasted ducks for our Christmas dinner. It pares so well with duck, and the vegetarian/vegan guests were especially impressed with the remarkable explosion of flavors. This will most surely be on every holiday table from now on.
Hi Kayelle,
This is such a nice note. Thank you!
I feel the same way about this salad and I am so happy to hear that you and your guests enjoyed it.
Serving it with duck is such a great idea. I might do the same for our NY eve dinner.
Happy holidays!
Cheers!
So good! A fave at our house!
Served this last night with roast chicken. It was amazing!
So glad you liked it Cathy. Thanks for letting me know.
I loved this! Packed full of amazing flavors!
Thanks Toni!