A cold & flavorful salad for a hot summer’s day.
Even though wild rice is technically harvested from mid August to mid September I couldn’t help I got a craving for it a month early. This salad is fresh, filling, full of flavor and can be very flexible with ingredients based on what you have or what is popping off in your garden (cucumbers right now)! Make a double batch of this and add it to your wraps, nourishing bowls, stuffed peppers or sweet potatoes.
Summer Wild Rice Salad
4-5 SERVINGS - 10 MINUTE PREP - 45 MINUTE TOTAL
Ingredients:
✔️ 1 Cup wild rice (or 3-4 cups cooked)
Sauce:
✔️1 Tbsp miso paste
✔️2 tsp maple syrup
✔️3 Tbsp softened tahini (I recommend Walmart’s creamy squeezable kind pictured below or you could use olive oil instead)
✔️3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
✔️2/3 Mango orange juice (or regular orange juice)
✔️1/4 tsp granulated garlic
✔️fresh cracked black pepper and salt (taste before adding salt because miso is salty)
cold add ins:
✔️1 chopped roasted red pepper (more or less based on prefrence)
✔️2 green onions/scallions chopped
✔️2/3 cup dried cherries, cranberries or raisins
✔️1 diced cucumber
✔️Handful of chopped greens when serving (use curly kale if making ahead and looking to avoid soggy greens)
Directions:
1. Rinse the wild rice in a colander and shake off water before adding to a decent size pot. Add 4 cups of water and bring rice to a boil.
2. Once water and rice are boiling reduce to a rolling simmer, a bit over medium heat. Allow to cook for 45 minutes. When done some of the rice should look a little curled open and the rice should be tender. Might need additional time based on oven/rice you have. While rice cooks prep the rest of you ingredients.
3. Mix up the sauce. add a scoop of miso to the bowl, maple syrup and the vinegar. Mix together until miso has softened into a thick sauce. Add tahini, garlic powder and pepper. Stir in the juice. You want it pretty smooth but don’t stress over a few little chunks of miso if you see them.
4. Chop the rest of your add ins (raisins, green onions, peppers). Wait on adding greens until ready to eat or cooled down unless it is curly kale.
5. Drain off any liquid left in the wild rice and fluff with a fork. I prefer to let my rice cool down before mixing it together but this is not required. Mix together, taste test to see if salt is needed.
This tahini is the best kind I have ever found and surprisingly at Walmart. It is more creamy and easier to stir than others and not bitter like I have had from the jar.
