Instant Pot Fruited Wild Rice Salad with Sweet Potato

This vegan and grain free Instant Pot salad combines chewy wild rice and tender sweet potato with grapes and clementines in a lemony herb dressing. Perfect for summer alongside grilled meats or for fall alongside baked meatloaf.  

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I have meaningful work and it's an amazing thing to be able to write that statement.
What does this have to do with the Instant Pot Fruited Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad recipe I'm sharing today? 
The short version is that I discovered the dressing I'm using in this salad (I've got a DIY version, too, see the Note below) via my work with Minnesota Central Kitchen turning rescued/donated ingredients into meals for hungry people in the Twin Cities area.
If that's enough for you please feel free to scroll on down to the recipe.

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The longer version of this story weaves together the threads of my MCK work plus my Instant Pot cooking classes with my military spouse desire to welcome a family to their new assignment in Minnesota. The result is this recipe.


Food is my love language. Food is my thing. I started this site to help folks like me eating locally and seasonally to make the most out of their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, and locally grown/locally produced foods remain at the core of my being.

Each place we've lived I've volunteered with food banks and when we moved to Minnesota it was no different. I found Second Harvest Heartland and started slinging bread or packing cans of fruit & vegetables into CSFP boxes, thinking it was a shame I couldn't use my kitchen skills to ameliorate hunger on a larger scale than just my family or the folks in my cooking classes.


The universe provides, however, and led me to Chowgirls and Minnesota Central Kitchen. Here I am helping fight hunger on a scale I could not have imagined, creating hundreds of pounds of food each day while using my brain and my skills and having fun. That's the MCK thread of this recipe.

As a military spouse and someone whose kitchen is her Happy Place I know the power of a good meal to restore the spirit in the midst of a trying situation. When you pack up and move across the country--or wave goodbye to crates of all your possessions hoping to be reunited with them in a new country 3 months later--no one really thinks about the weeks of eating down the pantry/fridge/freezer before the move ("we've got a box of fettuccine, 2 cans of tuna, a jar of Ma Po sauce, and a bag of broccoli in the freezer--GO!"). 

Then you've got the time on the road eating fast food and finally the massive mental shift to learn where the grocery stores are and find new brands in your new home. 
Welcoming a new family with a home-cooked meal and some of our favorite local finds is the next thread of this recipe. The final piece is my beloved Instant Pot.


I'm always on the lookout for new recipes to share in my Instant Pot classes and this summer I taught 2 different online classes using the Instant Pot for salads:  Hearty Main Dish Salads and Summer Side Salads. Since I've been using my Instant Pot to cook the proteins, grains, and vegetables for lots of salads this summer, it was a no-brainer to include a salad--highlighting wild rice and a local business--in the welcome meal.

For more recipes using clementines, see my Orange Recipes Collection. For more recipes using grapes, please see my Recipes Using Grapes Collection. For more recipes using Sweet Potatoes, please see my Sweet Potato Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

I'm sharing more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes like I do, follow me on Instagram. Need a good read? I'm sharing articles of interest on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

Note: Make your own lemony herb vinaigrette by combining 2 Tablespoons lemon juice with 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon mixed dried herbs, freshly ground pepper, and 5 to 6 Tablespoons olive oil in a pint sized jar with a screw top lid. Shake well. Store in the fridge.

Fruited Wild Rice Salad with Sweet Potato
By Kirsten Madaus

This vegan and grain free Instant Pot salad combines chewy wild rice and tender sweet potato with grapes and clementines in a lemony herb dressing.

Prep time: 00:15
Cook time: 00:45
Total time: 01:00

Yield: 4-8 servings
Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 medium/large sweet potato
1 cup wild rice (not a blend)
3 cups vegetable broth, chicken broth, or water
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 cup sliced red grapes
2 to 3 clementines, or mandarins, or tangerines or 1 orange (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 Salad Girl Lemony Herb Dressing (see Note above for alternative), plus more to taste

Instructions:

Place 1 cup water + trivet/rack in Instant Pot, add sweet potato. Cover and lock lid, turning the release valve to Sealing. Pressure cook for 12 minutes at High Pressure, then Quickly Release the pressure and stick a knife into the potato. If the sweet potato is tender, set aside to cool before cubing. If the sweet potato is not tender replace the lid and cook an additional 3 minutes at High Pressure. It's up to you if you Quick Release or allow a 5 minute Natural Pressure release--I don't know your sweet potato status. Wipe out your Instant Pot.

Add wild rice and broth or water to the Instant Pot. Cover and lock lid, turning the release valve to Sealing. Pressure cook for 20 minutes at High Pressure, then Quickly Release the pressure and drain the wild rice.

In a large bowl combine red onion and wild rice. Add grapes and optional clementines and stir well. Stir in parsley, then add lemony herb dressing to thoroughly coat. Fold in cooled cubed sweet potatoes.

This salad is good served at room temperature or chilled, and will keep for several days in the fridge.