Fruity Forage Wild Rice Salad

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend with family and friends. As it’s also Meatless Monday I have a fun and different Fruity Forage Wild Rice Salad that makes a great addition to your summer picnics or bbq.

A staple at every picnic, bbq, or summer potluck is the salads and sides. We all know the usually ones in attendance, the potato salad, the many pasta salads, seven layer or other green salads, fruit salads, and sometimes a rice salad if my mom is there. We’ve all been there where we need to bring something and want to bring something different or maybe you’re just in the mood for something different. This Fruity Forage Wild Rice Salad is just that and it’s a great allergen friendly option. As it’s gluten free, dairy free, vegan friendly, and can be nut free by omitting the nuts.

Packed with whole food flavors this salad is a complex yet simple balance of sweet, tart, and a little citrus. Starting with a wild rice blend base, I like blends for their texture and taste and find that they are more crowd pleasing. You can also make your own blend using brown rice, red rice, and black rice and omitting wild rice or blending that in with the others. Use what you have and like or just pick up a wild rice blend from your local store. The dressing is a simple combination of extra virgin olive oil, raspberry balsamic, and honey or maple syrup. Then comes all the flavor and color adding in clementines, blueberries, celery, dried cranberries and or cherries! Again you can use what you have on hand and if you have oranges use those and cut the segments in half. Then adding in chopped nuts when serving to keep that crunch. I like to use cinnamon spice mixed nuts but you can use sliced almonds, chopped cashews, or even pecans. One thing this salad isn’t lacking is flavor!

Thank you for joining Deborah and I for Meatless Monday, if you’re still looking for that last minute thing to make I hope you are this salad or one of the many recipes linked up below. If you have a meatless recipe to share please add yours and join the fun below. I hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

Fruity Forage Wild Rice Salad
Makes 4-6 servings
4c cooked wild rice blend (Lundbery Wild Rice Blend)
4 clementines
2/3c blueberries
2 stalks of celery
1/4c dried cranberries or cherries
1/2c chopped nuts (Isadore Cinnamon Spice Nuts)
1-2 TBSP raspberry balsamic
3-4 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1/2-1 TBSP honey or maple syrup (Bare Raw Wildflower Honey)

If rice is not yet cooked, cook rice per package instructions. Fluff and place rice in the refrigerator to cool. Once rice is cold fluff with a fork and place in a large bowl. Chop celery and add to rice. Peel clementines and separate segments, add segments in with the rice and celery. Add blueberries and dried cranberries and or dried cherries to the bowl and toss everything together. In a separate bowl, or jar with a tight lid, mix together 1 tablespoon raspberry balsamic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, and 1/2 tablespoon honey/maple syrup until mixture comes together. Test dressing and adjust to taste. Drizzle dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Store salad in the refrigerator until ready to serve, up to a day in advance. Mix in and top with chopped nuts just before serving. Enjoy!

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