This Wild Rice Salad features chickpeas, cranberries, and toasted pecans. Tossed with a honey-sweetened sesame ginger dressing, and topped with lots of cilantro, this is an easy, healthy recipe.
This Wild Rice Salad was the second recipe I ever posted on this site. It's such a lovely salad and was buried shamefully deep in the archives, so I thought it was high time for new photos, a printable recipe card, and some updated instructions.
This salad was born of a series of long ago girl's night potluck dinners. At one of these dinners a fellow attendee brought a wild rice salad she had picked up from the deli of a natural food store (I'm not naming names, but it rhymes with schmole schmoods), and it was tasty.
A short while later on a night when I was tired and hungry, the salad was still on my mind so I trundled over to schmole schmoods and picked some up for dinner - dang, it was expensive!
As I ate, I ran my eyes over the list of ingredients and I thought two things; 1. I can make this, and 2. I can make this better.
I wanted my Wild Rice Salad to be a meal in a bowl. I wanted to be able to reach into the fridge and grab leftovers, or throw some into a container to pack for lunch and have the salad be all I need to pack.
Also, because I'm very often the only vegetarian at a gathering, I wanted the item I brought to be both nutritionally satisfying and ensure that I wouldn't be stuck eating bread and leaves all night. And that's how this salad came to be.
Let's make some!
What goes into this Wild Rice Salad?
- Wild Rice! No duh, guys.
- Brown Rice. Because wild rice is expensive AF so we're bulking it out with the brown stuff.
- Chickpeas. For some plant-based protein!
- Tomatoes. I like using roma tomatoes in this recipe.
- Red Pepper. Tasty! Pretty!
- Dried Cranberries. They're festive AND delicious.
- Toasted Pecans. Because we're worth it. Also: crunch!
- Cilantro. Please and thank you.
The dressing includes:
- Honey
- Sesame oil
- Rice vinegar
- Light soy sauce
- Ginger
- Garlic
How do you make this wild rice salad?
Step 1: You're going to need to cook up some wild rice and some brown rice. I'm a big fan of batch cooking whole grains in bulk and freezing portions of them, so feel free to cook way more than you need for this recipe.
Pro tip: If you're cooking the rice to make this wild rice salad and you need it in a hurry, spread it out on a sheet pan to cool down.
Step 2: While your rice is cooking / cooling you can prep everything else. Chop your tomato, red pepper, and cilantro. Toast your pecans.
Step 3: Then, make the dressing!
Pro tip: Frozen ginger is waaaaaaay easier to grate than fresh ginger. Plus if you keep your ginger in the freezer it'll last for ever and you won't end up finding a sad, shrivelled ginger root stashed behind your fruit bowl / at the back of your fridge / wherever you keep your ginger.
Pro tip: Since you're grating your ginger anyways, you may as well grate the garlic also. But be sure to grate the ginger first and the garlic second, otherwise your ginger root (which is going back into the freezer, right? right?) will end up tasting like garlic.
So grate your ginger and garlic, add the honey, soy, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, and whisk it all together. Done!
Step 4: Then, combine everything into a big old bowl, toss, add the dressing, and toss again. Wild Rice Salad done like dinner.
Pro tips / Recipe notes:
- Is this recipe hard to make? No! If the rices are cooked in advance, this salad is super quick and easy to make!
- I don't have wild rice. Bummer. But really, you can use any blend of rice or grains you're into.
- Is this recipe vegan? Strictly speaking, honey isn't vegan. But you can sub in maple syrup instead and you're good to go.
- Is this recipe gluten free? Um, yes.
- Can I make this recipe in advance? You bet! Just leave the pecans and cilantro out until the last minute.
- How long will this salad last? It'll be good for about 3 days in your fridge.
- I want to make more/ less or this recipe. No problem! Just adjust the number of servings in the recipe card below and it'll do the math for ya!
Hey Nutrition Lady, what's the deal with wild rice?
Wild Rice isn’t actually rice at all. Rather, it’s a type of grass, known as an aquatic cereal, which is native to Canada and the United States. It’s been part of the diet of the First Nations people in areas where it is grown for thousands of years.
Wild rice is a good source of B vitamins including B1 (Thiamine), B6, B9 (Folate) and B12, as well as dietary fiber, which helps steady the pace of digestion and regulate glucose uptake.
Other recipes you might enjoy:
Spicy Tofu Grain Bowls
Winter Vegetable Meal Prep Bowls
Barbecue Tofu Bowls
Spicy Mung Bean Salad
Spicy Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
Wild Rice Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked wild rice approx 1 cup uncooked
- 1 ½ cups cooked brown rice approx ¾ cup uncooked
- 14 oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed (1 ½ cups chickpeas)
- 1 large sweet red pepper diced
- 2 medium roma tomatoes diced
- 1 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
Dressing:
- 2 tablespoon honey or other liquid sweetener
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger use frozen ginger!
- 1 clove garlic grated or crushed
- ¼ cup light soy sauce I prefer Bragg's liquid aminos
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Start by cooking your rice. Brown and wild rice both normally take around 45 minutes. Set rice aside to cool - spread it out on a sheet pan to speed up the cooling if needed.
- To make the dressing, whisk together honey (or other liquid sweetener), ginger, garlic, soy, sesame oil, and rice vinegar.
- In a large bowl, combine cooled rices, chickpeas, red pepper, tomatoes, cilantro, and dried cranberries.
- Pour the dressing over the top and stir well to combine ingredients.
- If you are serving immediately, add the pecans, otherwise, save them and toss them through the salad at the last minute.
- Top with extra cilantro if you like.
Notes
- Nutrition values are an estimate only.
- I don't have wild rice. Bummer. But really, you can use any blend of rice or grains you're into.
- Can I make this recipe in advance? You bet! Just leave the pecans and cilantro out until the last minute.
- How long will this salad last? It'll be good for about 3 days in your fridge.
- I want to make more/ less or this recipe. No problem! Just adjust the number of servings in the recipe card below and it'll do the math for ya!
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published July 6, 2010. It was retested, rephotographed, and updated on December 21, 2018. Last updated December 22, 2020.
pamela says
Made this to keep in the fridge for lunches this week. It's so good!
Leesa Pellettier says
I made this salad for company and it received rave reviews and recipe requests. I sent them your way!
Katie Trant says
Thanks Leesa!
Lindsay says
Coming back to this recipe for my make-ahead lunches for the week. Put it all together and then added chicken on top instead of chickpeas for fodmap-free protein. Omitted the garlic in the dressing but added extra ginger for more zing and it still tastes delicious!
Mana says
Best recipe found ever! This became our signature dish and now we're taking it around the world with us. Love it! Thank you
themuffinmyth says
So glad you like it! I've done another version with quinoa and edamame, which you might like as well!
Marlene says
I was looking for something different to do with wild rice and I just happened to have some fresh cooked chick peas. It's an awesome salad. It was a hit with everyone. Diffinately gonna be a regular dish at our family dinners. Thank you.
themuffinmyth says
So glad you like it! It's a favourite in my family as well - my sister even had her caterers make it for her wedding!
Rachel Bowley says
Thanks Katie, I am going to try this one this afternoon!
Laura says
This is an amazing recipe! Thank you.
themuffinmyth says
Glad you like it. It's one of my favourites too!
Vicky says
Ah ha! So that's how you do a "lettuce barrier". Here we go... summer is ending and full-tilt work and real life resume. I'll try pre-preparing sandwiches.
Awesome Teacher Friend says
can i suggest also, an "estimated time to prepare" section...
themuffinmyth says
You may.
Anne Titcomb says
Katie this is all so cool - I will do the rice salad one this week, I have friends coming for lunch. Keep this going it is great and thanks.
Cammy says
Wow. Just made a 1/2 batch of this (which, after my first bowl wish I had made a full batch). I used some dried blueberries that I got a "deal" on. This salad was amazing. Many times better then the one I made last week from a different food blog. Great job Katie!
Allison says
yummmmmmmm, love this salad. Can't wait to make it myself!!
Cammy says
Yum. This is gonna make the menu plan for next week!
Cynthia says
Oh this is fabulous! I made it for dinner tonight and it is soooo good! Thank you for sharing this- I'll be making it many many many more times!!
Dennis says
The picture alone looks delicious and incredibly good for you. This is a 'must try'.
Christa Giles says
Looks tasty... but I'd have to go shopping for a bunch of those pantry-esque ingredients, and wouldn't know what else to use them for....
Can I request a "stock your pantry with these items, and then use them for a and b and c...!" post at some point? 🙂
themuffinmyth says
Yes! That's a great idea. I'm also planning a "cook a big pot of ________ (brown rice, quinoa, beans, etc), here's 3 different things you can do with it" type of series in the future.