Wild Rice Salad with Cashews

I am very blessed to have a roommate who enjoys cooking! As I have mentioned before, we have a couple of spare bedrooms that because of the economy we rent out, to omnivores usually. One of our roommates, PK, as I will call him, is a military man on temporary assignment at a base near us, he loves to cook, and made dinner for us. We pronounced him an accomplished vegan & gluten free cook with this amazing dish paired with a spinach salad and some steamed green beans. It will definitely be making encore appearances at our table. Thanks so much, PK, for a night off in the kitchen, and for a spectacular dinner! Here is the recipe that was already gluten free, and we adapted to be vegan and oil free. 

This is a great "make ahead" dish 

Wild Rice Salad with Cashews

adapted from a recipe by Patricia Cornwell

 4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup uncooked wild rice

1 organic red or green pepper, chopped

¾ cup cashews

2 green onions, sliced

Dressing:

3 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar or organic apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp olive oil (*or water)

1 Tbsp sesame oil (*or 2 Tbsp tahini)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp sea salt

dash freshly ground pepper

Method:

1. Rinse wild rice in a strainer and drain well.

2. In 3-4 Qt. saucepan, bring vegetable broth and rice to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes or until tender.

3. Drain any excess liquid from rice (*into skillet,) or discard, and set rice aside.  

4. Over medium-high heat, sauté  peppers  3-5 minutes or until tender in 2 Tbsp. olive oil (*or the leftover water from rice)

5.Add cashews and green onions, cook for 2-3 minutes, or until nuts begin to brown. Remove from heat. In a large bowl, stir wild rice with bell pepper mixture.

6. For dressing, combine vinegar, oils (*or water & tahini), garlic, salt, and pepper in a jar with tight fitting lid. Shake well Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight, and serve chilled. For those who simply are not accustomed to rice salads, after salad has been chilling for several hours to meld the flavors, the mixture could be reheated and served warm like a risotto and is delightful this way too!

We doubled the recipe and serving it as a main dish, I feel a double recipe serves 6. It is even better leftover! =)

 (*) oil free directions