Wild Rice and Cannellini Bean Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

I love rice salads. Not only are they a nice change from the normal green leaf salads, but they are perfect for packing into your brown bag for lunch. And even better, you can serve them warm or cold, depending on your mood. This makes rice salads, like this Orange Chipotle rice salad, perfect for almost every season!

I recently found this recipe on Ginger Beat for a lentil salad with a mustard dressing and thought it looked simply delicious. The funny thing about mustard is that it was only within the past few years that I really started to love the flavor of it and appreciate all that it had to offer. So as soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I wanted to try my hand at making something similar.

As I started monkeying around in the kitchen, ideas of what to add to the recipe were flying around and soon enough, this recipe was born. Whoa - the flavors are absolutely delicious. It has a nice little kick from the coarse mustard, which is just perfect with the fresh parsley. Best of all, this recipe can be thrown together in as long as it takes you to make the rice.

So go ahead and give this a try - your brown bag lunches will thank you!

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Wild Rice and Cannellini Bean Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette
Serves 4

2 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp whole grain mustard
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
Freshly ground pepper
2 cups cooked wild rice
1/3 c chopped scallions
1/3 c chopped red bell pepper
1/4 c chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 (15 oz) can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

In a small food processor, combine vinegar, mustard, oil, garlic, and pepper. Process until dressing creamy. Set aside. In large bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Pour dressing over contents of bowl and stir well. Serve warm or cold.