WILD RICE SALAD WITH BACON AND ARUGULA

INSTRUCTIONS

1. First cook the wild rice. If you’re making this for a special meal, I’d cook the wild rice earlier in the day because it does take some time to cook. Be sure you’re using only Wild Rice (affiliate link), and not a blend with wild rice and other types of rice
2. To Cook Wild Rice in the Instant Pot: Add 1 cup wild rice and 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth to the Instant Pot. Lock lid and set to MANUAL, HIGH, 30 minutes. When the time is up let it NATURAL RELEASE for 10 minutes, then release any additional pressure.
3. Fluff the rice with a fork (and drain in a colander if there is much liquid left.)
4. Then spread the cooked rice out on a double layer of 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 tight fitting lid and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Put the lid on, turn heat to low, 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.
6. While the wild rice cooks, prep the other ingredients
7. We cut strips of bacon into pieces that were almost square and then cooked the bacon in a pan on the stove. You can use the microwave if you prefer. Drain the crisp bacon on paper towels
8. I hate arugula with stems, so I cut some off with scissors. Chop the arugula. (If you’re doing this ahead be sure to store in air-tight container in the fridge until you add it to the salad
9. Slice the green onions and celery
10. Toast the slivered almonds in a dry pan over medium-high heat. This only takes a minute or two, watch them carefully
11. Chop up shaved Parmesan into pieces (or use coarsely grated Parmesan if you want to save a little time and money.)
12. Whisk together red wine vinegar, Monkfruit Sweetener, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, dry mustard, and olive oil to make the dressing.
13. 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.)
14. Just before you’re going to serve the salad, combine the arugula with the wild rice/dressing mixture.)
15. Then stir in the cooked bacon, sliced green onions, sliced celery, toasted slivered almonds, and shaved or coarsely-grated Parmesan.
16. Toss together and decide if you want to add the rest of the dressing.
17. Season salad to taste with salt and freshly-ground black pepper and serve.
18. I’m guessing this will keep in the fridge for at least a day, but when we made the salad we didn’t have any leftovers to test that!