A hearty rainbow salad that works equally well for lunch or entertaining (hopefully we can do that again soon!). It's a great mix of flavors and textures -- savory, sweet, tangy, earthy, just a little bit of crunch and delish!
Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries & Pecans
Easy, Fresh, Flavorful and a Total Crowd Pleaser!
New! I’ve added a cooking video to this page so you can see how easy it is to make this gluten-free Wild Rice Salad.
If you’re new to this website, at the bottom of every recipe page is a printable recipe with exact measurements and directions.
Enjoy!
Update Thanksgiving 2020: This is a perfect Thanksgiving side dish that doesn’t require any oven space!
Let’s face it, even with a smaller gathering, oven space is at a premium on Thanksgiving. So what better than a festive and crowd-pleasing dish that doesn’t need to be heated?
Hope you love it as much as we do!
Original post…
This gluten-free Wild Rice Salad was originally developed as a Fall salad… it’s bursting with gorgeous Fall colors and is both a perfect transition to Fall and perfect on a holiday table.
We very quickly learned that we love it all Winter long too, as it’s fresh but hearty so super satisfying without being heavy!
This colorful salad is bursting with an amazing mix of flavors & textures, is super easy to whip together and it’s the type of salad that goes with everything.
It’s simply wild rice + a ton of diced vegetables and dried fruit, all tossed in a lemon-honey-dijon -vinaigrette.
It’s packed with flavor but no one flavor is overpowering, so it’s satisfying and crowd pleasing.
Seriously this salad has it all!
It’s savory, a touch sweet, a touch tangy, earthy and has just a bit of crunch. And with all this happening it is addictively delicious!
And it’s super simple to prepare.
All you need is:
Wild Rice
Dried cranberries
Pecans
Pistachios
Dried apricots
Celery
Red onion
Green onion and
and easy Lemon Honey Dijon Vinaigrette (see details below)
It has an amazing mix of flavors and textures but it beautifully balanced and no one flavor stands out.
It’s just fresh, satisfying and delicious!
And it comes together quickly.
While the rice cooks, you dice and measure out the other ingredients and whisk together the simple dressing.
For the Lemon Honey Dijon Dressing, you’ll need
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Red wine vinegar
Lemon Juice
1 garlic clove
Dijon Mustard
Salt & Pepper
And you simply whisk all the ingredients together, and it’s so delicious!
The salad itself is served cold or room temperature so it is as great for lunches as it is for a holiday table, where it’s nice to have at least one dish that doesn’t require reheating!
Pro Tip: when I make it as part of meal prep I will often keep the dressing separate and add as needed.
This salad will take you from lunch to a holiday table. It's savory, a touch sweet, a touch tangy, has a little bit of crunch and is addictively delicious! Serve cold or room temperature. Stays well in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week. NOTE: this is a cold salad but total time includes cooking the rice.
Author: Healthy Gluten-Free Family
Recipe type: Salad, Side, Holidays
Cuisine: Gluten-Free, Vegan
Serves: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
Salad
1⅔ cups wild rice or wild rice blend (we used Lundberg wild rice blend ) (This translates to 5 cups cooked)
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried apricots, cut into bite size pieces
½ cup pecan halves, broken into pieces
½ cup roasted and salted pistachios
½ cup celery, diced
¼ cup red onion, diced
¼ cup green part of green onions, sliced thin
Lemon Honey Dijon Vinaigrette
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
⅛ teaspoon kosher salt (or more to taste -- NOTE: the pistachios we used were salted; use more salt if unsalted pistachios)
⅛ teaspoon pepper or more to taste
Instructions
Cook the rice
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
While waiting for water to boil, rinse rice to remove some of the starch.
When water is boiling, add rice to water and cook rice as you would pasta. Cook in boiling water for 30 minutes. Taste the rice, should be cooked but firm. You do not want a mushy rice. As cooking times vary by brand, you may need to cook a few minutes longer but we have always been good with 30 minutes.
Drain rice into a strainer with small holes (you don't want to lose the rice!) and run cold water over it to remove any remaining starch.
Set aside and let cool.
Lemon Honey Dijon Vinaigrette
Whisk all ingredient together until well combined.
Salad
Add all ingredients in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss to combine. PRO Tip: When making as part of meal prep, I sometimes like to keep the dressing separate until serving so that it stays fresher. And when you add dressing, a little goes a long way!
Serve cold or room temperature.
Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
6 thoughts on “Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries & Pecans”
I made this as a side dish for my Sunday family dinner night and it was a HUGE hit! I got compliments from everyone (even the kids!!). I used Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Medley and it made a little more than 5 cups of rice so I made a little extra dressing and it was still delicious. Thanks for the awesome recipes!
Happy you loved it! It’s one of my favorites! Pine nuts are a great substitution — did it need extra salt? The pistachios definitely add some salty flavor to the salad…
Big hit!! Will be making this again, likely for thanksgiving! 😁
Oh, I replaced the apricots with mandarin oranges, cuz it’s what I had in the house! It was really delicious!
Hi! My name is Karen, and I’m the mom in our Healthy Gluten-Free Family. My posts and pictures here and on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter are labors of love that allow me to share a very personal journey with you, one our family has taken together — learning, experimenting and sharing how to raise a healthy happy gluten-free family. Read more ...
I made this as a side dish for my Sunday family dinner night and it was a HUGE hit! I got compliments from everyone (even the kids!!). I used Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Medley and it made a little more than 5 cups of rice so I made a little extra dressing and it was still delicious. Thanks for the awesome recipes!
So happy you all loved it! Love the way you adapted the recipe so that it worked and was easy! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Loved this. It was perfect for Thanksgiving. I replaced the pistachios with pinons because that was what I had on hand.
Happy you loved it! It’s one of my favorites! Pine nuts are a great substitution — did it need extra salt? The pistachios definitely add some salty flavor to the salad…
Big hit!! Will be making this again, likely for thanksgiving! 😁
Oh, I replaced the apricots with mandarin oranges, cuz it’s what I had in the house! It was really delicious!
Yay! So happy you love this salad as much as we do! I think we may make it for Thanksgiving too!