Winter Wild Rice Salad
Happy MLK Day! Who else got the day off today? Nick did, so I took a day of PTO with him to catch up with house chores and to get more done on the new blog 🙂 I was recently explaining to a few people, including Nick, that I normally come up with what to cook based on something I wanted to use up. In this case, I had about 1/3 left of a tub of a wild rice blend that I discovered I still had, after I had already bought a new one. Oops. Well, things need to be used up, even if they aren’t going to “go bad” soon. And this helps me always come up with new ideas of how to use ingredients since I don’t like to stick to the same things all the time.
Enter, this winter wild rice salad! Admittingly, this is the first time I have ever attempted making a kale salad. Normally, I buy the baby kale in the tubs mixed with spinach and other greens, because I think kale is just so tough that I’ve always enjoyed it more in it’s cooked form. However, much to my surprise, “massaging” the kale really does do the trick. It went from tough leaves to nice and soft leaves, it even turned more green when doing so! I just put a little olive oil and lemon juice with a pinch of kosher salt to the bowl of kale and with clean hands, massaged the leaves for 1-2 minutes. Right after washing and chopping the kale leaves, the leaves were over the top of this bowl, so check out the “after” photo to see what a difference this made!
I then went on to make the dressing in my favorite way – mason jar style. I put in some lemon juice, EVOO, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard (this really is what makes the dressing emulsify properly), and S&P. Super basic, and just shook it up! I like my salad dressings more tart from the vinegar so I typically do a 1:1 ratio of oil to vinegar, instead of 3:1 like I see in most recipes. I definitely recommend making this to taste, since salad dressings are so easy to customize, so just take my ingredients and make it your own!
Then I just chopped up an apple (leftover from my Apple and Carrot Muffins), and an avocado, and I was ready to go! I love making mason jar salads for my lunches for the week since the concept of keeping the leaves away from the dressing really does keep the salads fresh for 4-5 days. Put the dressing on the bottom, followed by foods that will not ruin by being close to the dressing. This is when I decided to put in the cranberries, apples, and almonds. I followed that by a layer of the wild rice blend, topped that with the massaged kale, and on top I put the avocado and feta cheese.
Yay! Meal prep does not have to be hard. And honestly, this would be just as good if you made this as a “normal” salad with the kale in a big bowl, and top with the rest of the ingredients. Make it your own!
If you make this recipe, please tag @nommingwithnicola or #nommingwithnicola so I can see your recreations and “like” your photos! I love seeing what you make!
Winter Wild Rice Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 1 head kale de-stemmed and chopped
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (I used 1/2 lemon)
- 1 apple (I used gala, but any will work) diced
- 1 avocado diced
- 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice (sub brown rice if needed)
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup feta cheese crumbled
For the salad dressing:
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (I used whole lemon)
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp real maple syrup
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, add your kale to a large bowl with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. Begin to massage the kale until it has broken down, about 1-2 minutes.
- Prepare salad dressing: put all dressing ingredients in a mason jar or other seal-able container and shake until emulsified.
For Meal Prep:
- Add dressing to bottom of pint size mason jars. Follow by a handful of cranberries, apples, and almonds. Follow by a quarter of the prepared rice, then a quarter of the kale. Top with diced avocado and feta cheese.
For Full Salad:
- Add kale to serving bowl. Top with rice and remaining chopped ingredients. Sprinkle crumbled feta cheese over top. Serve with dressing.
Notes
For pinning:
