Holiday Wild Rice Salad
Yield: 6 servings
This Holiday Wild Rice Salad recipe pairs beautifully with an easy maple Dijon dressing. It's hearty and delicious, with fresh pomegranate seeds, apples, and grapes, plus savory blue cheese, bacon, and pecans. You'll love every earthy, chewy, nutty, fresh, and creamy bite!
Ingredients
- 1 pound thick-cut bacon
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup whole wild rice (not cracked, and not mixed with other types of rice)
- 2 teaspoons Morton kosher salt
- 2 large crisp apples, cored and thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 8-10 cups fresh, sturdy greens (like arugula, baby spinach, or baby kale - or a mixture of baby greens and one of these sturdy greens)
- fresh pomegranate seeds from 1 large pomegranate
- 3 cups halved red grapes, sliced lengthwise
- 1 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 1 cup large-chopped roasted & salted pecans (I recommend the ones from Trader Joe's)
- 1 recipe Maple Dijon Dressing
Instructions
- Cook bacon according to your preferred method until chewy-crisp. Once cool, chop into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
- While bacon is cooking, add chicken broth to a medium-large saucepan over high heat; bring to a boil. Stir in wild rice and salt. Turn heat down to low/medium-low, cover, and simmer until wild rice is split open and curled. This should take 50 to 60 minutes. If you see a good amount of wild rice still not split open, simmer a bit longer. Remove from heat and drain any excess liquid. Fluff with a fork and set aside.
- While bacon and wild rice are cooking, prepare remaining ingredients. Place apple slices in a bowl and squeeze some lemon juice over them. Toss a few times to coat. This will help them to not brown as quickly.
- To assemble, place a layer of greens on the bottom of a large platter. Then arrange the rest of the ingredients as desired (see photos in this post). You could also serve this by placing individual ingredients in separate bowls. Serve with Maple Dijon Dressing on the side.
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1 Calories: 681kcal Carbohydrates: 60g Protein: 25g Fat: 41g Saturated Fat: 9g Polyunsaturated Fat: 29g Trans Fat: 1g Cholesterol: 41mg Sodium: 1646mg Fiber: 14g Sugar: 28g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.