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Winter Citrus Salad with Wild Rice and Radicchio

by Christine Tizzard
Citrus Salad with Wild Rice

I don’t know about you, but salads can get a WEE bit boring during our long winter months. A side salad alongside a festive meal lightens things up and adds color to my plate. However, I crave recipes that have more punch and substance to them. Salads with leftover cooked grains, like wild rice sprinkled throughout, not only bulks it up but makes it a little more interesting. It also can make this salad into a lighter meal on its own as opposed to a side.

I also aim to use up produce that is in season. A few of my favorite seasonal winter food items I indulge in are pomegranates, fennel, bitter greens (like radicchio and endive), and citrus. We get so spoiled with all the different citrus available. these days. I grew up with just two options: oranges and grapefruit. Now we can buy Cara Cara oranges, blood oranges, mandarins, and pomelo. I regularly rotate through them all to keep things interesting. So I figured, why not adapt all those things into a composed salad with a mish-mash of jeweled citrus, grilled peppery radicchio, fresh and crisp fennel and wild rice. AND, of course, a sprinkle of bursting red pomegranate seeds.

Serve, as is, as a lighter meal or as a festive side with my suggested sumac citrus vinaigrette or favorite store bought vinaigrette.

Winter Citrus Salad with Wild Rice and Radicchio

Christine Tizzard
Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Total Time 1 hr
Course composed salad, Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine Healthy, salad
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1-2 cups cooked and cooled wild rice or about 1 cup dry, then cooked
  • 1 head radicchio, cut into 8 wedges
  • 1 grapefruit
  • 2 oranges cara cara is good
  • 2 blood oranges
  • 1/2 fennel bulb thinly sliced, reserving fennel fronds for garnish

Suggested Vinaigrette: Sumac Citrus

  • 2 Tbsp citrus juice of choice
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp ground sumac
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • salt and pepper to taste

Garnish

  • fennel fronds
  • 1/2 pomegranate seeds only

Substitutions:

    For wild rice sub in any other cooked grain you like

      For radicchio sub in other butter greens such as endive or even charred kale

        Instructions
         

        • If needed, cook wild rice according to package instructions. Set aside and let cool.
        • Preheat hot pan or grill to high and lightly oil. Sear radicchio wedges until charred and just wilted/tender. Set aside on a plate.
        • Over a bowl and with a sharp knife, peel citrus and slice into rounds, OR/ segment citrus into wedges. The bowl with catch all leftover juice to use in vinaigrette recipe or drink at another time.
        • In a salad bowl or an a platter, layer wild rice with charred radicchio, citrus, and fennel.
        • Make vinaigrette by mixing all ingredients together in a bowl. Tasting and adjusting seasonings. Pour over salad.
        • Toss gently and garnish with fennel fronds and pomegranate seeds.
        Keyword cara cara oranges,, citrus, citrus salad,, fennel, grapefruit, grilled radicchio,, leftover grains,, leftover rice salad,, leftover wild rice,, oranges, pomegranate, radicchio, side salads, sumac, sumac vinaigrette,, wild rice, wild rice salad,, winter citrus salad,, winter salad,

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        CategoriesAll Recipes Breads & Grains Plant Based
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