Wild Rice Salad

One of Whitney's birthday requests was that I prepare the meal plan for that week. We had recently purchased the vegetarian edition of William Sonoma's Food Made Fast series, so that provided an easy starting point for finding one of our meals for the week. This particular recipe seemed like a good combination of tasty flavors and a filling meal that can be hard to find with vegetarian dishes without resorting to pasta (which is a favorite of ours, but we have to switch it up sometimes!). Unfortunately it was not pomegranate season at Harris Teeter so I had to buy a thing of pre-separated seeds; we'll have to try it again with fresh ones.

The salad turned out great (overcooked rice notwithstanding) and I'm glad to have another good vegetarian recipe in our repertoire.

Wild Rice Salad from Williams Sonoma Food Made Fast

   Serves 4

Ingredients

3/4 cup wild rice

3 cups water

1/2 tsp. salt, plus more, to taste

1 large celery stalk, chopped

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup chopped walnuts > we used pecans

1 or 2 oranges, preferably navel, peeled, sectioned and chopped

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

1 Tbs. walnut or canola oil

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

> We added a handful of arugula

Directions

Cook the rice

   In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the rice, water and the 1/2 tsp. salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the rice is just tender, about 40 minutes. Drain and place in a bowl. 

Assemble the salad

   Add the celery, cranberries, walnuts, chopped oranges and orange juice to the rice; and arugula. Add the oil and stir with a fork to combine. Season with salt and pepper. 

Serve

   Spoon the salad into a serving bowl. Sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and serve immediately. 

It's Always Caturday
Checking out the newly installed automatic feeder

"Give me the kibble"