Wild Rice, Cranberry, Walnut Salad

I have learned to be much more food flexible in my old age, and also during this pandemic. My best suggestion is to be creative and/or lazy.  If you don't have an ingredient, try a substitution. If the recipe looks as though it has too much of one thing or another for your liking, change the recipe. If everything has to be made from scratch, think twice about how to adapt the recipe. It usually works out without too much of an ensuing disaster.

***Allergy alert - The recipe that follows contains walnuts, but any types of nuts can be substituted including pine nuts (I don't care for these), almonds, or pecans. I've only tried it with walnuts so far.

Whereas I was less than enthusiastic about my recent attempt at Jambalaya, this recipe is definitely a keeper. I think it's been around for a long time. A rice salad with very few ingredients, it tastes delicious even though it doesn't look too appealing to everyone in the photo...wait, nobody's in the photo. It doesn't look appealing to everyone the way it appears in the photo...better.  It also keeps for several days in the fridge.

I didn't do anything 'much' to change this recipe (unusual for me) which I found in several different online locations including a page on anti-aging foods...yayyy. Let's see if it helps. Here's the version that my stepmom used, and that I am also currently using. 


Cranberry, Rice, & Walnut Salad


Ingredients in red.

1 cup rice - brown and wild is suggested, but I substituted long and wild rice. Is there really much difference? ***I also have been known to use prefab rice. In other words, something of slightly lesser nutritional value and much less work. On the other hand, if you're a purist and you have an hour to kill, go ahead and use wild rice that you need to cook. I think the brown takes a little less time.

When rice cools (if you're using cooked), mix with  1/2 cup of dried cranberries, and 1/2 cup of squashed walnuts. I had to use halves which I put in a bag and crushed with a rolling pin.

For dressing -

Whisk together 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 tsp. of sugar (I used sweetener), 1 tablespoon lemon juice (from a real lemon or from a squeezy plastic lemon), a tsp. of rind if you have any kind of citrus fruit, like the aforementioned lemon (not the plastic one) or an orange-like item with rind, salt, pepper to your taste.

Assemble by pouring dressing on rice mixture, and serve. I've also seen versions using roasted nuts that have been cooled, and versions that are warm salads. I like to refrigerate mine prior to consuming.

Et voi​là. There you have it...easy peasy.

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***Prefab rice example. I don't use them often because of the plastic, but this one comes in two, one cup sizes so I just use one of the two for the recipe.  The plastic cups can however be recycled, or up cycled and used for other purposes.