Wild Rice Salad with Bacon and Arugula – Kalyn’s Kitchen

This flavorful Wild Rice Salad with Bacon and Arugula is a fun twist on wild rice salad that’s perfect to make for a special meal! And this salad has a variety of low-carb ingredients, so there are only about 8 net carbs per serving. Use baby spinach if you’re not an arugula fan.

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One of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes is Wild Rice Stuffing with Sausage and Mushrooms, and when I came across that recently on the site, it reminded me that wild rice is low in carbs and inspired me to try creating a wild rice salad!

And after a bit of experimenting, Kara and I came up with this Wild Rice Salad with Bacon and Arugula that we absolutely loved. The salad has lots of savory flavor from bacon, arugula, slivered almonds, shaved Parmesan, green onions, and celery, but the dressing is sweetened with Monkfruit Sweetener, so the salad has a nice mix of savory and sweet flavors.

If you’re making this for a holiday meal you can cook the wild rice and marinate it in the dressing, prep the other salad ingredients earlier in the day, and then toss the salad together when it’s time for dinner. And there are endless variations for salads with wild rice; see the ideas below if you aren’t a fan of some of the ingredients we used or just want to switch it up a bit.

What ingredients do you need?

Making Wild Rice Salad ahead for a special meal:

If you’re making Wild Rice Salad for a special meal, I’d cook the wild rice, make the dressing, and prep all the other ingredients early in the day. You could combine the wild rice with the dressing an hour or two ahead and keep it on the counter, then add the other ingredients right before you serve the meal.

What if you don’t want arugula in the Wild Rice Salad?

I know arugula is a no-go for some people, and if you’re not an arugula fan just use baby spinach or even baby kale for the salad.

More variations for Wild Rice Salad:

• Skip the bacon if you want a vegetarian version of this salad.
• Use another type of nuts like pecans, walnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, or macadamia nuts.
• If you prefer a different type of cheese I’d like the salad with Feta, Cotija, goat cheese, Manchego, or Havarti.
• If you don’t want celery, add another savory raw vegetable like chopped red bell pepper, shaved raw Brussels Sprouts, or sliced radishes, or toss in some cubes of a cooked vegetable like sweet potatoes or butternut squash. 
• If you don’t mind a few more carbs, add a sweeter ingredient like pomegranate seeds, dried cranberries, chopped apple, chopped pear, dried apricots, or orange sections.

Cooking the Wild Rice for Wild Rice Salad:

1. For a special meal, I’d cook the wild rice earlier in the day. Be sure you’re using Wild Rice (affiliate link), and not a blend.
2. To Cook Wild Rice in the Instant Pot: Add 1 cup wild rice and 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth to Instant Pot. Lock lid and set to MANUAL, HIGH, 30 minutes. When the time is up use NATURAL RELEASE for 10 minutes, then release additional pressure. 
3. Fluff the rice with a fork (and drain in a colander if needed.) 
4. Spread cooked rice out on paper towels and drain until it’s relatively dry. (I blotted with paper towels too.)
5. To Cook Wild Rice on the Stove: Put 1 cup wild rice and 3 cups of vegetable stock in a pan with lid and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn heat to low, cover pan, and simmer for 40-45 minutes. The rice is fully cooked when some of the pieces of wild rice are burst open. Drain and blot dry as above.

Prepping and assembling Wild Rice Salad with Bacon and Arugula:

1. While the wild rice cooks, prep the other ingredients.
2. Cut strips of bacon into pieces and cook in a pan on the stove or in the microwave. Drain the bacon on paper towels.
3. Trim arugula stems if desired, then chop arugula. 
4. Slice the green onions and celery.
5. Toast the slivered almonds in a dry pan over medium-high heat. 
6. Chop shaved Parmesan into pieces (or use coarsely grated Parmesan.)
7. Whisk together red wine vinegar, Monkfruit Sweetener, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, dry mustard, and olive oil to make the dressing.
8. Put cooked wild rice in a large bowl and stir in most of the dressing. (You can do this an hour or two before dinner.)
9. Just before you serve the salad, combine the arugula with the wild rice/dressing mixture.
10. Stir in the cooked bacon, sliced green onions, sliced celery, toasted slivered almonds, and Parmesan. 
11. Toss together and decide if you want to add the rest of the dressing.
12. Season salad to taste with salt and freshly-ground black pepper and serve.

More Thanksgiving-Worthy Salads to try:

Check out Keto Salads for Holiday Dinners to see lots more tasty salad ideas that are low in carbs.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
The Wild Rice Salad with Bacon and Arugula has about 8 net carbs per serving which is pretty good for a special holiday salad. For the original South Beach Diet, it would be recommended to use turkey bacon, but personally I wouldn’t worry about that too terribly much.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

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