Wild Rice and Spinach Salad

This post is sponsored by Tabasco® and is the second of five dishes in the Tabasco 10 Ingredient Challenge. The views and opinions in the post are my own.

The nice thing about this 10 Ingredient challenge is that they gave us some delicious veggies to work with. To be honest, you can combine them in almost any order with some seasonings and it’ll probably be delicious.

This Wild Rice Spinach Salad has only a few colorful ingredients but is one of the better lunch salads I’ve made in awhile. It’s filling thanks to the wild rice and beans, but it’s also addictively, perfectly spicy.

The hardest part about this dish is not eating it straight out of the freakin’ skillet.

Wild Rice Salad

Just a moment please...

Yield

Serves 4.

Prep Time

15 mins

Total Time

1 hr

A filling but simple salad featuring spinach, cranberries, hot sauce, and wild rice, served warm or cold. Perfect for lunch!

Ingredients

4 ounces wild rice

1 large shallot, sliced

1 tablespoon Tabasco hot sauce

6 ounces baby spinach

1 (15-ounce) can Cannellini Beans

1/3 cup dried cranberries

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

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Directions

1) Cook wild rice according to package.

2) Slice one large shallot. In a large skillet over medium heat, add oil. Once hot, add shallot and cook for a minute or two. Add Tabasco and continue to cook for an extra minute.

3) Add spinach, beans (drained and rinsed), and cranberries to the skillet. Cook until spinach is wilted, just a few minutes.

4) When rice is done, stir into the skillet with spinach mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve salad warm or cold.

Wild Rice Spinach Salad

Rice Gone Wild

Wild rice isn’t exactly necessary to make this salad work. I’m not sure I would use white rice, but any brown rice would give enough heft to the salad to work fine. Wild rice is beautiful though and I love the nuttiness it gives to dishes like this.

The problem with wild rice is that it’s a bit pricy and also takes about an hour to cook. It’s time well spent though.

Rice gone wild.

Meanwhile, you’ll need this stuff. Be sure to drain and rinse the beans well.

Good, simple flavors.

When your rice is almost done, add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat and add your sliced shallot. When the shallot is starting to soften a bit, pour in your hot sauce.

Maybe don’t place your face directly over this hot skillet when you pour in a tablespoon of hot sauce. It’s a potent situation.

Shallot cooking

Stir that all together and then stir in the spinach, beans, and cranberries.

You have to love these colors!

Everybody in the pool.

When the spinach is wilted and everything warm, the salad is basically done.

Then just wait for your rice to finish cooking and stir it into the skillet.

As with any salad like this, taste it and season it with salt and pepper.

Good mix.

You can serve this Wild Rice Spinach Salad warm, at room temperature, or cold. It’s good in any and all forms.

Love this dish.

I think this Wild Rice Spinach Salad is what this challenge is all about. You don’t need a lot of really fancy ingredients to make a great meal. Keep it simple and fresh and it’s hard to go wrong.

Who’s making this over the weekend? Leave a comment!