Winter Wild Rice Salad

I first came up with this dish when I was coming up with additional sides for Thanksgiving... But let's be honest, you can use it for any occasion.  It's a great side dish and, since it's served cold, you can use it any time of the year. The only reason I've termed it "winter" is because of its colors... The red and the green play against the wild rice nicely.

Too be fair, it's not solely wild rice, I use a rice blend... However, you could use only wild rice if you wanted, and I think it would be just as pretty.  And definitely as tasty!

Ingredients:

1 cup wild rice

1 cup long grained white rice

2 Tbs olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

4 cups of chicken stock (you can substitute vegetable stock to make a vegetarian version)

1 package of dried cranberries, chopped

6 green onions, white and light green part only, sliced

4 celery stems sliced and chopped

1/2 bunch of Italian parsley, leaves pulled and chopped

Juice and zest of one orange

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

3 TBSP Orange Marmalade

2 TBSP Dijon Marmalade

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add garlic, and stir for one minute. Add in rice, and sauté for 3 minutes. Add in chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to low, cover. Cook until rice has absorbed stock, between 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool.

In a separate bowl, whisk orange juice, zest, vinegar, marmalade, Dijon, and oil. 

Add half of dressing to rice, and let sit overnight. 

Before serving, add cranberries, onions, celery and parsley to rice. Taste and add salt and pepper, and additional dressing as needed to taste.