Wild Rice Pilaf (Make-Ahead Holiday Side Dish!)
Holiday-inspired 🥕🍁🌲 Wild Rice Pilaf features hearty wild rice mixed with Brussels sprouts, carrots, pecans, dried cranberries, and more! A light maple-Dijon vinaigrette ties it all together. It’s a spectacular and healthy side dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals or for holiday entertaining because it holds well and you can make it in advance.
Easy Wild Rice Pilaf Recipe
- This recipe reminds me of my Fall Quinoa Salad because of the Brussels sprouts and carrots nestled in with a bunch of other good stuff! But rather than oven-roasting them, I sautéed them with celery and red onions to change up the flavor profile and to save time compared to roasting.
- In this recipe, wild rice shines brightly. I grew up in Minnesota, ‘The Land of 10,000 Lakes’ where wild rice grows wild in the shallow, cool, lakeside waters, hence the name wild rice. Except it’s not really true rice – it’s actually edible seeds from aquatic grass. I love the hearty, chewy, nutty texture. It’s able to stand up to all the other add-ins here.
- There are a variety of add-ins, including chopped pecans, dried cranberries, fresh thyme and parsley, but if you don’t have all of these on hand, don’t worry. This recipe is extremely flexible! For example, if you wanted to dice apples or pears and toss them in instead, they would work wonderfully.
- It’s an excellent side dish for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, or holiday entertaining because it holds really well at room temperature. Considering it’s naturally gluten-free and vegan, you’re pretty safe.
- And you can make it in advance so it doubles as a great meal prep recipe for lunches or meatless mains for the week. You could easily toss in garbanzo beans or leftover shredded or cubed chicken for extra protein.
Ingredients in Wild Rice Pilaf
Wild Rice: It’s the star of the show and I highly recommend using the ‘Lundberg Wild Blend Rice‘. When you use a wild rice blend, you get a nice variety of textures and sizes of the grains. I also prefer the Lundberg brand specifically because the rice does not bleed color onto other ingredients like I’ve unfortunately experienced with other brands of wild rice in the past.
Wondering about using other types of rice? The only other rice that I could potentially recommend would be brown rice because it’s much heartier. I do not recommend making this recipe with white rice, including basmati rice, long grain rice, quick-cooking rice, nor black rice.
Tip: Use extra wild rice to make this Turkey Wild Rice Soup, and also use up leftover turkey at the same time.
Vegetables: Carrots, celery, red onion, Brussels sprouts. If you have other veggies in mind, such as squash or mushrooms, you can include them, just taking note that some veggies take much longer to cook, such as squash.
Flavoring and Herbs: Garlic, fresh thyme, and fresh parsley for garnishing. If you’re making this for the holidays and you have other fresh herbs on hand, go for it. If you happen to have basil or mint, I think either one could be lovely here.
Add-ins: Chopped pecans (or chopped walnuts or sliced almonds are great) and dried cranberries. Don’t skip the dried cranberries because they had such a lovely chewy texture and burst of tangy tartness! Golden raisins are a good sub.
Vinaigrette: Olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon, mustard, salt, black pepper.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How To Make Rice Pilaf with Wild Rice
- Wild Rice: Cook it according to the package directions in a saucepan with a lid, noting that wild rice takes longer to cook than other types of rice. Plan on 45 minutes cooking time, but it could be longer or shorter.
- Vegetables: In the last 15 or so minutes before the rice is done, sauté the vegetables in a bit of olive oil in a large skillet, and add the garlic to the pan at the end. Transfer to a large bowl and add the cooked rice to it.
- Herbs + Add Ins: Add the fresh thyme, parsley, and the add-ins.
- Vinaigrette: Combine all ingredients, whisk well to combine, taste, and make any necessary flavoring tweaks. Pour evenly over everything in the bowl and stir.
- Taste and Serve: Make any flavor adjustments, including more salt or pepper, garnish with extra fresh herbs if desired, and serve.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
Pilaf
- 1 cup wild rice blend, (rinse well before using; use Lundberg for best taste, texture, and to prevent bleeding/color running
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 to 5 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into small pieces no bigger than 1/2-inch each (regular or multi colored carrots may be used)
- 2 medium celery stalks, sliced into thin half moon pieces
- 1 medium red onion, diced small
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1 cup halved or sliced Brussel sprouts
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves, (removed from stems, or use about 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or to taste)
- ½ cup chopped pecans, (chopped walnuts, pistachios, or sliced almond may be substituted
- ½ cup dried cranberries, (golden raisins, dried cherries, or dried apricots) may be substituted
- 2-3 teaspoons fresh parsley, finely minced
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Wild Rice: Add the rice to a colander and rinse the rice thoroughly before cooking it under cold running water. To a large saucepan, add water, wild rice, cover, and cook according to package directions. Cooking Tips – Wild rice takes longer to cook than other types of rice, about 45 minutes, but start checking it at 35 minutes. But if your simmer is very low, it could take up to about 1 hour. Cook until done, however long it takes. In the last 15 minutes or so before it’s done, start the next step.
- Saute Vegetables: To a separate large skillet, add the olive oil, carrots, celery, red onions, salt, pepper, and saute over medium-high heat for about 5-6 minutes, or until vegetables are beginning to soften; stir frequently. Size Tip – Make sure to keep your carrots and Brussels spouts on the smaller side unless you like really al dente vegetables. They’ll be the items that take longer to cook through compared to the celery or onions.
- Add the Brussels sprouts and saute for about 3-5 minutes, or until they’re as tender as desired: stir frequently.
- Add the garlic, thyme, and saute for 1 minute; stir continuously.
- Transfer: Transfer the cooked veggie mixture to a large bowl along with the cooked rice.
- Add-Ins: Add the pecans, cranberries, parsley, and stir everything very well to combine; set aside momentarily.
- Vinaigrette: To a small bowl (or Mason jar with a lid), add all ingredients, whisk (or shake) well to combine, taste and make any necessary flavor adjustments you’d like, and evenly drizzle over the ingredients in the bowl. Stir very well to combine. Make sure to read Flavoring Tips below!
- Taste: Taste and make any necessary flavor adjustments. It’s almost certain you’ll want to add more salt and likely more pepper since there’s very little that’s been used up until this point. Serve when ready!
- Flavoring Tips – If it tastes at all flat or boring, it likely will benefit from additional salt, and perhaps pepper. There’s acid from the apple cider vinegar and Dijon, but you can always add more of either. I personally like to use 2-3 tbsp maple syrup (or honey) but I love overall savory dishes with a healthy undercurrent of sweetness. If you want it to have a hint of spiciness, a couple generous shakes of red pepper flakes are great. Love lemon? Lemon zest is great.
Reheating: If you want to reheat it, I suggest letting it come to room temp on your counter for about 30-45 minutes, then microwaving it for 1 minute, and determining from there how much more microwaving time it may need.
Storage: Leftovers will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months, noting that the texture of everything (especially the Brussels sprouts) will soften and change a bit after being frozen and thawed, but it doesn’t affect the flavor.
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 331cal, Carbohydrates: 38g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g, Monounsaturated Fat: 12g, Sodium: 830mg, Potassium: 407mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 13g, Vitamin A: 6998IU, Vitamin C: 16mg, Calcium: 49mg, Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
