Arugula Wild Rice Salad with Orange

If you are also feeling like you doubled your body weight in the last 1-2 weeks, you might also like to join the January “let’s only eat salads” club.

But if you are also feeling like extreme deprivation (i.e. kale smoothies) is not quite what the doctor ordered, I’d definitely you suggest you get to work on making this Arugula Wild Rice Salad with Orange.

The reason?  Because flavor.  And satiety.  I work 10 hour days at my “day job” (aka the job that is actually paying my salary and not this blog), so it is critical that I can actually eat something for lunch that is not going to make me feel like I’m digesting air.   With this in mind, a salad with a little hearty grain or protein will do the trick.  And in this recipe that magic ingredient is wild rice.

And wild rice and orange taste awesome together.

And orange and almonds taste awesome together.

And baby arugula is always acceptable to my picky palate for greens.

Thus this salad was born.  Wild rice is an ingredient that up until this point I didn’t realize I was missing in my life.  It takes a little longer to prepare than regular white rice, but the results are quite delicious, and you feel like you are eating something with sustenance.  The dark and chewy grains make a great addition to this salad and really soaks up the delicious orange dressing…Speaking of.. a little note on the dressing- it tastes remarkably good if it is fresh, but you can easily make/prep the dressing in advance.  The dressing complements the flavors well and includes a mixture of orange marmalade, shallot, red wine vinegar, and oil.  The longer you let the dressing sit, the longer the shallot will have to macerate in the vinegar and the onion-y sharpness will settle down a bit.  Basically, I thought the dressing was delicious on day 1, but exceptional on day 2. I could continue to praise this little star of a recipe, but that might prevent you from making it immediately.And it might also prevent me from my other New Year’s Resolution which includes: being less wordy on wordpress ahem… exercise….

Arugula Wild Rice Salad with Orange

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup uncooked, wild rice
• 5 cups water
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 navel oranges peeled, and cut into segments
• 5 oz baby arugula
• ½ cup sliced almonds toasted (I toast mine in the oven on a baking tray at 350 for about 10-11 minutes)

_For the vinaigrette_

• 1 small shallot minced (about 3 tablespoons)
• 2 heaping tablespoons orange marmalade
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• In a medium saucepan combine water, 1 ½ teaspoon salt, and wild rice. Bring to a boil and cook for 50 minutes. Drain the wild rice and immediately return to pot. Cover with lid and allow wild rice to steam (off the heat) for about 10 minutes longer.
• Chill rice for about 1 hour or until it is room temperature or cooler.
• Meanwhile prepare the vinaigrette- in a small bowl combine minced shallot, orange marmalade, vinegar, oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk thoroughly to combine.
• To assemble- in a large bowl combine arugula, rice, orange segments, and almonds. Drizzle entire salad with about 2/3 of the dressing. Toss and taste for seasoning. Add remaining dressing as needed.