This Wild Rice Salad will have you singing “doo, doodoo, doodoo, doo, doodoo, doo” do take me on this wild rice side!
This Rice Salad is wild, not only because it is made with a wild rice mixture, but because it is crazy loaded with delicious goodness. Shall I start singing again? I’ll spare you from the singing, but not from the G’licious health lecture. This gluten free beauty is loaded with so much health I don’t know where to start. The rice and garbanzo are incredible sources of fiber, folate, protein and both have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol (the bad guy). The red pepper and grapes provide this salad with an array of vitamins from A through K along with plenty of Potassium. If that wasn’t enough the walnuts and olives aren’t just there for oodles of texture and flavor, they also furnish this salad with healthy fats, omega-3′s and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients. The combo of all this nutrition make this a remarkably heart healthy, immune booster, heavenly tasty concoction.
Without further ado.
What You’ll Need:
- 2 cups cooked wild rice (can use brown rice too)
- 1/2 cup organic chickpeas (garbanzo beans) rinsed and drained
- 1/3 cup raw walnuts
- 1 small red pepper
- 20 grapes (I used seedless green)
- 12 olives (I used kalamata)
- 1 oz fat-free feta cheese
How To Make The Magic Happen:
- Cook the rice as directed in pack (you may do this step in advance)
- Rinse the chickpeas well (if using canned) and drain
- Chop the red pepper to desired size
- Roughly chop the walnuts (you want the crunch)
- Slice grapes in half
- Slice or chop olives (your salad, your preference)
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, toss with your preferred dressing (you’ll find mine below), serve and enjoy! This keeps very well and it is even better after it sits for a bit!
I promise you this salad will not disappoint, it is filling enough to be a meal, but you can also serve it as a side. Have fun with it, make it your own, substitute, add, play, you will love it!
This is good even without a dressing, but in G’licious living we like to dress things up and this dressing went perfect with the salad:
- 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil (good quality of course)
- 2 Tbs of white wine vinegar (or champagne vinegar)
- Juice of 1/2 lemon (or a whole if it’s a small lemon)
- 1/2 Tbs of Agave nectar
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Mix it all well and toss with your Wild Rice Salad
Once again from my very own G’licious corner to yours; eat up, rejoice, enjoy!
Several thanks for the wonderful post C I
White cloud never promise the sky where and when she will go, but she will be accompanied by your side morning and evening. Star never promise the night to bring him a light, but he is hard to twinkle; The Scenery never says to eye to be forever, but always been beautiful;