There’s so much to love about this Wild Rice and Kale Salad. It’s made with gluten-free wild rice and adorned with chopped kale, bell pepper, celery, pecans, parsley, dried cranberries, and a lovely lemon and olive oil dressing.
The kale in this recipe came from my local farmers’ market as did the parsley! If you don’t have kale, you can use Swiss chard or spinach, and if you’re not a fan of parsley, toss in basil, cilantro, or mint.
If you want to hear about this recipe along with other nourishing recipes I teach when I do cooking classes, tune in to episode 58 of the Liz’s Healthy Table podcast.
Wild rice is grown in the Great Lakes region of the U.S., and technically, it’s not a rice but rather, the seed of a grass. It has a nutty flavor, a crunchy texture, and takes about an hour to cook. A one-cup serving has over 6 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.
- Serves: 8
- Serving size: 1 cup
- Calories: 150
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated fat: 1.5g
- Carbohydrates: 12g
- Sodium: 90mg
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 2g
- 1 cup wild rice (or 2 cups cooked brown rice)
- ½ bunch kale, washed, stemmed, leaves removed and cut into thin ribbons (about 2½ packed cups), or 3 packed cups baby kale, roughly chopped
- 1 orange bell pepper, diced (we cut it into ¼ inch dice)
- 2 to 3 green onions, thinly sliced (white and light green parts only)
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ½ cup roughly chopped toasted pecans
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 1 celery stalk, trimmed and thinly sliced
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar (any kind is fine)
- 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- Crumbled feta cheese, optional
- Top with hard boiled eggs, optional
- Cook the wild rice according to package directions. When done, drain, place in a large bowl, and stir occasionally until the rice is cooled.
- When cool, stir in the kale, bell pepper, green onions, parsley, pecans, cranberries, and celery. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, vinegar, honey, garlic, salt, and pepper until well combined. Stir into the rice mixture. (You can also use a small Mason jar to combine salad ingredients.)
- Season with additional lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste and refrigerate until ready to eat. Add feta cheese as desired.
Watch me cook up this Wild Rice Kale Salad on CNN AccentHealth!
Janice,
The wild rice salad looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it. So glad you put your wild rice from Minnesota to good use!
Annette Maggi, MS, RD, LD, FAND
what a lovely, colorful, nutritious bowl… i’d be thrilled to see this on a potluck or dinner table! and what’s better than plucking ingredients fresh from your garden!
Please, oh PLEASE do a spiralizer show! We have been enjoying our spiralizer this summer – it is a really fun tool – and would love some new recipes!
What have you been making with your Spiralizer? We’re jealous!
I went to a technique class/demo at William Sonoma for the spiralizer. There is a bit of fiddling needed with recipes since the veg gives off water when cooked and you certainly don’t want watery sauce! the zucchini noodles give the mouthfeel of spaghetti. I have had luck with creating a sauce in a separate pan and sauteeing the noodles in a small amount of olive oil (sliced garlic and pinch of red pepper flakes) and pouring off any excess liquid before plating and topping with sauce. It is a little trickier if you are trying an all in one pan dish. WS gave out a few recipes and our favorite has been a Lemon dill zucchini noodle with cannellini beans. One of their tips was not to salt the dish, but to use salty toppings – mainly cheeses, like Parmesan or feta (again, to cut down on the water loss from the veg) am planning a curry with sweet potato noodles for the weekend and something with broccoli stems, too!
Thanks for sharing! I made this last night with farro like Liz mentioned on the podcast. It was sooo good! Instead of garlic in the dressing I used 1/2t Dijon mustard and 1/2 t sugar.
Made this for a pot-luck where I knew there would be vegans as well as vegetarians. I put feta on the side as an add-on. It was a big hit!
That is GREAT news. We adore this recipe!