Wild Rice and Pomegranate Salad

You'll love this easy, hearty chilled wild rice and pomegranate salad for make-ahead meals, or for bringing a dish to pass at holidays or celebrations! It's packed with flavor, crunch, antioxidants, and nourishing ingredients to keep salads interesting all winter long. Also, it's gluten-free! This post was rephotographed and updated in 2021.

this recipe

This wild rice and pomegranate salad recipe is one of our winter favorites for a texture/flavor bomb on our tastebuds! It has everything you need: sweet and crunchy pomegranate seeds (and their health benefits), salty feta, earthy kale, nutty wild rice, zesty red onion, basil, walnuts, and plenty of simple orange vinaigrette to tie it all together. There's a lot going on, but it WORKS, and I might even be so bold as to say the fresh basil makes this dish.

Plus, it looks festive for all the November/December holiday celebrations! Let's get this salad on the table.

Ingredients

• Wild rice or wild rice blend - You can use some that you have precooked, or start with it dry. I love using the Lundberg wild rice blend!
• Pomegranate seeds - You can buy pomegranate seeds (aka pomegranate arils) already removed from the fruit. Or, see my tips on how to deseed a pomegranate (without a mess!).
• Kale
• Red onion
• Walnuts
• Feta
• Fresh basil
• Vinaigrette ingredients - olive oil, fresh orange, cider vinegar, pure maple syrup, salt & pepper.

Substitutions & Variations

• Vegan - Omit the feta to make this recipe vegan, or if you're feeling ambitious and have a little extra time, you can try making your own vegan feta!
• Greens - This is one recipe that actually makes me want to eat kale because of how it soaks up the vinaigrette but still stays sturdy. That said, if you want to try another leafy green, I recommend arugula.
• Nuts - Pecans, almonds, pistachios, or pepitas are all great in this recipe.
• Grains - Another nutty, chewy grain such as farro, wheat berries, or whole barley would be a great substitute for rice. These types of grains stand up well to sitting in a vinaigrette in the fridge, as they maintain their chewy textures while still soaking up all that flavor. Wheat berries are probably my fave, and I even have a delicious wheat berry salad recipe I think you'll love.
• Pomegranate seeds - I love to celebrate pomegranates when they're in season, but red grapes would be delicious in this salad, too!

Instructions

To make this wild rice salad, you'll start by cooking the wild rice according to package instructions. For wild rice, typically this takes about 30 minutes. Once the rice is done cooking, drain and rinse it beneath some cool water. This will help cool the rice so that it's ready to be combined with the other ingredients.

Once the rice has cooled, place it in a large bowl. Add the kale, red onion, pomegranate, feta, walnuts, and basil. Stir everything together to evenly combine.

Next, make the orange vinaigrette by combining olive oil, cider vinegar, juice of an orange, maple syrup, salt, and pepper in a mason jar. Shake the jar vigorously to fully emulsify the dressing ingredients. Finally, pour the vinaigrette all over the salad ingredients and toss to coat everything.

Eat immediately or chill in the fridge first. It's pretty spectacular when chilled for at least 30 minutes before eating, but I totally understand not having the patience 😉

Hint: To make super flavorful rice, I always heat some olive oil in the pot and toast the dry rice first. Once it smells fragrant, I'll add in the water and salt according to the package instructions.

Top tip

My favorite way to shred kale into small pieces is with a kitchen shears! All you do is snip, snip, and it lands directly into whatever bowl you're using. No messy cutting board, full control over kale size.

Wild Rice Salad FAQs