Sprout Salad with Wild Rice, Carrot & Mushrooms

Winter can get a little too heavy on the root vegetables and the cabbage; oh, the endless, endless cabbage. That's why it's so great when you can find some sprouts. This salad uses pea shoots and sunflower sprouts, which are surprisingly delicate in flavour and texture given their rather ungainly size. If you can't find that particular set of sprouts though, almost any combo will do. This salad tastes so fresh and alive, and you'll feel fresh and alive when you eat it too.

4 to 6 servings
15 minutes prep time, but don't forget to cook the rice in advance



Cook the Wild Rice:
3/4 cup wild rice
2 1/4 cups water
a pinch of salt

As ever, easiest to put it all in the rice cooker and cook it there. Use only half of the cooked wild rice for the salad; it's just hard to cook less and there is always a use for leftover cooked wild rice.

Make the Honey-Mustard Salad Dressing:
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons sunflower seed oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Put the honey and oil in a small bowl or jar, and heat it in the microwave for about 20 to 30 seconds, until the honey melts. Mix in the remaining ingredients.

Make the Salad:
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1 to 1 1/2 cups sunflower sprouts
1 to 1 1/2 cups pea spouts
1 medium carrot

Clean and slice the mushrooms. Rinse the sprouts and drain them well. Chop them roughly. Peel and grate the carrot.

Mix the mushrooms, sprouts and carrot with half of the cold cooked wild rice. Toss with the dressing and serve at once.




Last year at this time I made English Carrot-Almond Cake.