North American Salad - a la Nigella Lawson

When I saw this gorgeous salad on Stirring the Pot, I just knew I had to make it. I mean, aside from the fact that it is a Nigella Lawson recipe, well, just LOOK at it! Isn't it beautiful? The colors and textures combined perfectly to make my mouth water.

I promptly went in search of wild rice; which, in these parts, isn't easy. I did manage to find a bag of mixed wild rice at the local less-than-Super Walmart which held about 2 1/2 cups of rice. However, with the Little Man's birthday plans taking up most of my time over the last two weeks, I didn't manage to get it done. An entire hour to cook rice just wasn't in the time budget.

So, when I was packing all my gear to head out to Iowa for a weekend visit with Ginny last Thursday, I tossed all the ingredients into the bag and away we went! Arriving at Ginny's condo late Friday morning, the first thing we did was put the rice on to cook.

We discovered in the process of making the dish that the sauce looked like a tiny amount compared to the amount of rice (even though we had less rice than the recipe called for), so we doubled the sauce recipe. We also substituted poached chicken for turkey, since that's what we had handy.

I must say, this salad turned out to be absolutely delicious, and a very satisfying dish, as well. The rice is quite filling and the flavors blended very nicely. Some toasted pecans and a sprinkling of fresh parsley on top really finished it off nicely.

North American Salad

Adapted from Feast by Nigella Lawson

Serves 6-8, recipe can be halved

3 cups wild rice

1/2 cup dried sliced cranberries

4 cups diced cold turkey

2 tablespoons cranberry sauce or jelly

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup halved pecans or pecan pieces

1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Cook the rice according to the package instructions, rinse and leave to cool. Add the dried cranberries and turkey to the cold, cooked rice. Make a dressing with the cranberry jelly, lime juice and oil by whisking everything together in a bowl.Toss the dressing through the rice, cranberries and turkey. Snap the pecans in half (or if using pieces leave as they are) and add to the salad with most of the parsley, turn out on to a plate or serving dish and sprinkle with the remaining parsley.

NOTE: Reserve the pecans until ready to serve so that they remain crunchy.