Wildrice Harvest Salad

Not long ago I was doing a lunch for a group of ladies and I wanted to serve a cranberry wild rice side dish.

I was researching how to keep rice warm and discovered that it's not really safe to keep rice warm!

Warm rice encourages bacterial growth.

I know -- try not to think about all the times you've eaten "kept warm" rice.  Proof that it was OK is that you're still living -- but I didn't want to be responsible for ladies getting sick!

So I changed the plan and made a cold wild rice salad.

I've never eaten anything like it before and I was kind of creating as I was going.

It actually turned out to be a nice side dish with the chicken.

Later that evening, I even topped a spinach salad with a scoop of the wild rice salad and drizzle poppyseed dressing over it. 

I surprised myself there too!  I liked the way the rice changed the texture of the salad!

Wild Rice  Harvest Salad

1 box of wild rice (no seasoning packet needed)
craisins, to desired taste
1 crisp apple, chopped (Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, or Fuji)
1 can mandarin oranges, "rough drained"
3 TBSP Olive oil
3 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice until tender.  Drain any remaining water from the pan.

While the rice is cooking, mix the olive oil, lemon juice and honey together.  Depending on the amount of rice you are making, or your own taste preference,you may want to double this recipe.  I was making a large amount and I did the recipe times 4.

While the rice is still warm, add in the desired amount of craisins.  The craisins will plump out from the heat of the rice. 

Refrigerate the prepared rice until ready to serve.  I made the rice and craisins the day before.  Before serving, add the chopped apple and the oranges.  I did a "rough drain" meaning that I wanted some of the juice from the oranges in the rice for added flavor and moisture.