Nutty rice pairs up with pumpkin, pomegranate + feta in this harvest wild rice salad. A homemade dressing makes this the perfect Thanksgiving side dish!

I love serving a hearty salad with out holiday meals, because it’s such a refreshing dish next to all the more heavy holiday dinner sides.

This is perfect for all fall celebrations, with wild rice, roasted butternut squash and lots more goodies. And it looks so pretty on a beautifully decorated Thanksgiving table!

Ingredient notes

You can use pumpkin or acorn squash in place of the butternut if that’s all you have.

The dressing ingredients are quite flexible – use apple cider vinegar in place of the white wine vinegar, apple cider in place of the orange juice or maple syrup in place of the honey.

For the mustard I recommend using a Dijon mustard, but any you have will work. Sometimes I switch things up and use a whole grain mustard, which is very delicious, too!

You can skip the arugula if it’s not your thing, or replace it with baby kale or baby spinach.

Likewise, use a different cheese if Feta isn’t your thing – diced cheddar or Colby Jack would be delicious here, too.

Cooking tips

The time your squash needs to roast will depend on the exact size you dice it, but it’s usually done in around 15 minutes. Important here: Don’t over-roast it, or it will turn into mush in your salad. Letting the squash cool before using it helps it stay firmer in the salad, too.

Always taste-test your dressing before using it, so you can adjust if it needs more sweetness or acid etc.

In case your dressing doesn’t turn out smooth and the ingredients stay separated, try adding a little more honey or mustard. They act as emulsifiers and help create a smooth salad dressing!

do not overcook the rice – that’s especially important for a salad, it’s not attractive and it gets smushed pretty easily otherwise
to cool the rice quickly, you can drain it in a fine-mesh sieve and then rinse under cold water until it has cooled; this will also help keep the rice form overcooking in residual heat

If you’re using freshly… Plucked? Emptied? De-seeded? pomegranate, make sure to rinse the arils (seeds) under cold water, then drain them well. Otherwise your entire salad will be pink.

To make this salad appealing and to keep it from getting messy, be very careful when tossing it! And only toss it right before serving, or your arugula will wilt.

Make ahead instructions

Roast the squash the day before and store it in an airtight container in the fridge once it has cooled.

Make the dressing in a small lidded jar and keep that in the fridge as well for up to two days.

And while you’re at it, get the pomegranate seeds ready and into the fridge for up to a day ahead as well.

Then the day of, all you have to do is cook the rice (I don’t like to keep cooked rice because it easily spoils), chop some arugula and assemble your salad.

Scale the recipe

This is a recipe that works just as well for a large group as it does for a tiny celebration.

You can easily halve the recipe to serve only a few people. Or double, triple, quadruple… To serve a crowd.

Just what your Thanksgiving needs!

More Thanksgiving sides

Ok, I have never shared a turkey recipe here, so you’re going to have to find that elsewhere ? But here are some of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes from the blog ?

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

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