Crispy Wild Rice Salad
Use leftover wild rice to prep this dinner salad in minutes. Toss with fresh roasted carrots and salad greens and coat with a super-easy 3-ingredient homemade dressing.
Both my girls are great salad eaters but they tend to gravitate towards Caesar salads or anything with ranch dressing.
This year, I'm trying to help them break out of that rut and explore more interesting dinner salads with easy but unique ingredients.
This is my newest, very favorite salad recipe because it combines a couple warm ingredients with a few cold ingredients and is filling enough to be a full dinner.
I had everything needed just hanging out in my fridge so it was a great way to use up tiny bits of leftovers that wouldn't have been enough for a full meal on their own.
BUT, it was so delicious, I will make this again whether I have the leftovers ready to use or not!
Why This is the Best Recipe
- Easy to Prep: Even if you need to roast the carrots fresh, the whole salad will be ready to serve once they're out of the oven.
- Great Texture and Very Satisfying: If you're getting bored with regular green salads, adding crispy rice adds a more satisfying texture and helps the dish fill you up longer.
- Tangy Dressing Pairs Well with Spiced Chicken: I love the tangy lemon vinaigrette that goes with this dish. I turn it into an entree salad with spicy chicken.
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Ingredients
The ingredients list may seem like the salad takes a lot of work, but I promise it is super easy.
You'll need to have:
- Leftover Cooked Wild Rice: I made a double batch of wild rice for a special fish dinner one night and had the leftovers in the fridge ready to go. The rice will keep for 3 - 5 days, so you don't even need to eat it on back-to-back nights.
- Salad Greens: I always keep a pre-washed tub ready in the fridge for zero prep. Our family loves the spring greens mix from our grocery store. You could use any combination of romaine, baby spinach, or spring greens that you love. Arugula would also be tasty but adds a much stronger peppery flavor
- 4 - 6 Carrots: I tend to buy big bags of carrots for making soup and other recipes and then there are the stragglers that end up going to waste. This is a perfect place to use them up.
- Lemon Parmesan Dressing: This 3-ingredient homemade dressing comes together in just a minute. You can get the lemon parmesan vinaigrette recipe's full instructions here.
OPTIONAL: If you want to add some protein to your salad, I highly recommend this marinated chicken recipe or this simpler healthy chicken tenders recipe.
Cook the Rice
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add the rice and saute for 5 - 10 minutes or until the rice has started to crisp up.
Roast the Carrots
Meanwhile, roast the sliced carrots in your oven.
You can find the full instructions for roasting carrots in the recipe card below or in this separate roasted carrots post.
Prep the Dressing
It only takes a minute to stir together the easy lemon parmesan vinaigrette.
Just add all the ingredients to a bowl or mason jar and stir them together.
The dressing can be made days in advance and stored in the fridge.
Assemble the Salad
If you don't want your salad greens to get wilted from the heat of the rice and carrots, let both warm ingredients cool slightly before tossing together.
I found it easiest to add the salad greens to a serving bowl, then spoon the rice over the top and sprinkle the carrots.
If you're serving kids, you could also serve each item individually. But they definitely taste best altogether!
Make Ahead Tips
You can cook the rice and roast the carrots in advance if you don't mind a chilled salad. Store each item separately in the fridge for quick assembly.
Serving Suggestions
This crispy wild rice salad makes an excellent holiday season side dish or an easy weeknight dinner if you've got some leftover wild rice in the fridge.
When I serve it for dinner, I like to pair it with a seasoned chicken like my tandoori marinated chicken.
If I'm serving it to the kids, I might make a milder batch of chicken tenderloins in the air fryer as the protein topper and then serve the roasted carrots on the side. The greens and rice taste great with the lemon parmesan vinaigrette by themselves.
For our dishes, I layer it all together for one entree salad.
More Salad Recipes
I love to mix unusual ingredients in my salads to keep our veggie sides interesting for family dinner. Here are a few more of my favorite salad recipes:
📖 Recipe
Crispy Rice Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad Base
- 6 cups spring green salad mix
- 1 cup leftover cooked rice We love using wild rice for this recipe but any grain will do.
- 2 tbsp olive oil
For the Roasted Carrots
- 6 carrots peeled and sliced on the diagonal to make long "coins"
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp roasted red pepper flakes
- Sprinkle of kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper
For the Dressing
- 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp grated parmesan
- Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Prepare the Roasted Carrots
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Toss the carrots with the olive oil on a large baking sheet. Arrange them in a single layer. Sprinkle the seasonings over the top.
- Bake for 20 minutes. No tossing or flipping is necessary. The carrots should be fork-tender. You can time serving the salad when they are hot from the oven or you can let them cool to room temperature.
Prepare the Crispy Rice
- Once the carrots are in the oven, place a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet.
- If your leftover rice is still cold from the fridge, microwave it on HIGH for 1 minute so that it doesn't steam in the pan as it warms up. Add the rice to the hot oil in the skillet and break up any clumps with a spoon. Toss the rice in the oil until it is evenly coated and then let it sit and cook to crisp up.
- Do not over stir the rice. Spread it into an even layer over the pan and let it sit for several minutes. Then stir and spread again, letting it sit for another few minutes.
- The rice will eventually start to sizzle and crisp up. When you see crunchy, browned bits of rice when stirring, remove the skillet from the heat and let the rice slightly cool. This will take about 15 - 20 minutes, depending on your rice but will likely be done before the carrots in the oven.
Prepare the Dressing
- Squeeze the juice from the lemon into a glass measuring cup. Add the grated parmesan cheese and olive oil. Use an immersion blender to whisk it together until creamy and thick. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and then taste the dressing with a leaf from the salad mix. Adjust the seasonings to taste.
Assemble the Salad
- If you don't want your salad greens to wilt, it is best to let the roasted carrots and rice cool slightly before assembling. (See Notes Below.)
- Place the salad greens in a serving bowl. Add the carrots and rice. Toss with a drizzle of the dressing and serve.
Recipe Notes
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Found your recipe while wondering how to prepare these meatballs from Costco. It was delicious. I did skip making the dressing, just threw a few spoonfuls of leftover raw cranberry-orange sauce atop the greens. Topped that with the wild rice and meatball mixture (the carrots were actually the carrot-turnip-sweetpotato-rutabaga medley we roasted for Thanksgiving dinner). It was so good, and used up a lot of our leftovers which was a bonus. I hadn't thought to combine greens with the rice. Thank you.