Roasted Beet Wild Rice Pilaf
on Nov 19, 2024
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This wild rice pilaf has a colorful combination of ingredients and textures with roasted beets, baby spinach, pecans and dried cranberries. Serve this as a side dish for Thanksgiving or another fall-winter meal. You can make the wild rice, beets and vinaigrette in advance, so then you can just stir everything together when you’re ready to enjoy it.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
There are so many ways to go with a wild rice pilaf recipe depending on the feature vegetable and the rest of the ingredients. This grain is a great pantry staple for side dishes. Roasted beets add color and their earthy flavor. The pecans and dried cranberries give nutty and sweet accents to go with the savory flavors.
This is a side dish that’s kind of a salad in a single recipe. That’s because it is lightly dressed in apple cider vinaigrette. It is up to you if you want to add more greens to make it more of a salad.
You can simmer the rice, roast the beets and make the vinaigrette ahead of time. This can be helpful for meal prep whether that’s for a holiday dinner or lunches for the workweek.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Beets: I use both red beets and golden beets. Buy them without the greens. If you want the rice to be less pink, then use more golden beets than red. If you want a shortcut, roasted red beets are sold in vacuum packs in the refrigerator case in the produce department. Pat the juices off with a towel before cutting them and stirring them in.
- Wild rice blends can vary quite a bit depending on the brand. Always check the recommended cook time on the package. You will miss out on some of the bite and flavor, but you can substitute with long grain brown rice.
- Baby spinach: For this recipe, you can use with baby arugula on its own or mix it with spinach. Then it will have a more peppery bite.
- Pecans give the rice a nutty bite. You can swap with toasted walnuts or almonds.
- Dried cranberries are tart and sweet. They tend to stick to each other in the package, so pull them apart before you measure them.
- Scallions give the rice light onion flavor. With some rice pilaf recipes, you sauté diced onions before adding the rice and broth to the pot. Here I lean more into the salad aspects of this side dish and stir in these fresh green onions.
- Parsley: I also include chopped fresh herbs, a must for any side dish/salad.
- Vegetable broth: Use low-sodium vegetable broth, so then you can control the seasoning levels, especially the salt.
- Apple cider vinaigrette: The dressing has minced garlic, whole grain mustard, kosher salt, black pepper, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. You will also need oil, salt and pepper for roasting the beets.
How To Make Roasted Beet Wild Rice Pilaf
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
1. Put each individual beet on a small piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle the beets with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Loosely wrap the beets into foil packets. I like to do this right on the baking sheet, so then they can go right into the oven.
2. Roast the beets for 45-50 minutes. Carefully open the packets. You know the beets are ready when they are fork-tender. You should be able to pierce them with a paring knife. Give the beets a little time to cool off.
3. Peel beets by rubbing off their skins with a towel. Keep in mind that the color will stain with both the golden and red beets. Then dice the beets.
4. Cook the wild rice. Combine the rice and vegetable broth in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. (Check the recommended cook time on the package.) Let the rice stand for 5 minutes and then fluff it with a fork. It should have a chewy texture.
5. Make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk the garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar and olive oil.
6. Combine the wild rice, scallions, spinach, pecans, cranberries and chopped parsley in a big bowl.
7. Drizzle in the vinaigrette and toss everything together.
8. Fold in the roasted beets. You should do this slowly. The beets will stain the rice no matter what, but it will be less if you stir them in gently.
Serving
This side dish is great for a holiday meal like Thanksgiving or Christmas with oven-roasted turkey, but you can also serve it as a main dish for lunch or dinner. Another option is to make it more of a salad and toss in additional leafy greens.
Make-Ahead Tips
You can make the rice, beets and dressing up to 3 days in advance. Let both the wild rice and beets cool to room temperature before storing them in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator.
Keep the vinaigrette in a jar. Let it sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes and stir it. This will give a chance for the oil to turn to liquid again if it hardens in the cold temperature of the fridge. Also for the rice and beets, give them time at room temperature to lose that chill.
Leftovers & Storage
You can store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. The spinach will soften, so I like to stir in another handful of fresh greens.
More Beet Recipes
Oven-Baked Beet Chips
Roasted Golden Beet Salad
Roasted Beet Orange Pear Salad
Golden Beet Soup
More Wild Rice Recipes
Roasted Beet Wild Rice Pilaf
Ingredients
For beets
- 1 1/2 pounds red and golden beets without greens
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
For rice
- 1 cup wild rice blend
- 2 1/4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
For vinaigrette
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
For rice pilaf
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place each beet on an individual piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle the beets with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Fold into loose packets and place on a sheet pan. Roast the beets for 45-50 minutes until they can be easily pierced with a knife.
- When the beets are cool enough to handle, use a towel to rub off the skins. Dice the beets into 1/2-inch pieces.
- Combine the wild rice and vegetable broth in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. (Check the recommended cook time on the package.) Let the rice stand for 5 minutes before fluffing it with a fork.
- For the vinaigrette, whisk the garlic, mustard, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, apple cider vinegar and 3 tablespoons olive oil in a small bowl.
- Combine the rice, scallions, spinach, pecans, cranberries and parsley in a large bowl. Drizzle in the vinaigrette, tossing everything together.
- Gently fold in the roasted beets.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
What a fantastic way to include beets! My grandmother used to do a very simple little recipe but this is a great way to kick it up a notch!
Wondering if this would be good cold? I have some cooked beets from Trader Joes in my fridge but seems like serving temp might make a difference?
You can definitely turn this into a wild rice salad and serve it cold or at room temperature. I recommend cooking the rice in advance. Let it cool to room temperature. At that point you can store it in the fridge, so then the rice and beets will both be fridge cold. When you stir everything together, you can also add a few handfuls of baby arugula.