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Wheat Berry & Wild Rice Salad with Strawberries & Basil

VGVegetarian

By Danae

on Mar 05, 2014, Updated Jul 17, 2024

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Have I ever told you about my wedding? You might be asking yourself what does this have to do with Wheat Berry & Wild Rice Salad with Strawberries & Basil? I’ll get to that in a minute, but first my wedding.

My husband and I were married on October 23, 2010. We had just bought our first house that January so we were on a tight budget. The house we bought was a real fixer upper so we had been putting most of our money into updating it. When we were looking at wedding venues we would both leave with our mouths hanging open shocked at how much it cost just to use the space. On top of that there were tons of other costs to consider like the photographer, cake, dress, flowers, food, etc. After a lot of thought we decided that we would have the wedding reception at our house.

Since we had been putting so much time, money, and labor into updating our house we figured it would be the perfect place, plus we could show off all our fine work! On top of having the wedding reception at home we also decided to make all the food ourselves. I know, some of you are shaking your heads thinking we were crazy, and to a point I agree with you. However, we were having a smallish wedding and my mom and a couple coworkers were there to help make the food and serve it at the reception, bless them! Without the help of all of our family and friends we never could have pulled off this at home wedding.

It ended up being absolutely perfect! We served appetizers, sandwiches, several different salads, and even had a massive dessert table filled with the most delicious cookies, brownies, bars, and a beautiful wedding cake. The dessert table was a dream come true for me and my husband since dessert is our favorite meal! Neither of us got to eat much of the other food because we were busy mingling with all the guests, but we made sure that we got plenty of dessert! So, back to the Wheat Berry & Wild Rice Salad with Strawberries & Basil.

This salad is a variation of my favorite salad that was served at our wedding. The original recipe is one that my mom made many times when I was living at home. It uses dried cranberries instead of strawberries in the salad and the dressing is slightly different. When I was at the store last weekend I found some beautiful strawberries. I started thinking how wonderful they would taste in this salad and decided to give it a try. I was right! I think I may even like this variation better!

The salad is full of texture, which I am a big fan of. The wheat berries and wild rice give it a chewy texture and the toasted pecans add a nice crunch. The strawberries add sweetness which is balanced out by the acid from the white balsamic vinegar in the dressing. The final component, the basil gives the salad a fresh flavor, and as we all know strawberries and basil are a perfect combination! Every time I make this salad it brings back such happy memories of our wedding and how perfect everything turned out!

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Wheat Berry & Wild Rice Salad with Strawberries & Basil

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Cook: 50 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr

Servings: 4 servings

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A delicious whole grain salad full of texture and flavors!

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Ingredients 

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For the Salad

• ▢ 3/4 cup cooked wheat berries
• ▢ 1 cup cooked wild rice
• ▢ 1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans
• ▢ 1/2 cup strawberries diced
• ▢ 1 T. fresh basil chopped

For the Dressing

• ▢ 1 T. canola or other flavorless oil
• ▢ 2 T. white balsamic vinegar
• ▢ 1 t. honey
• ▢ 1/2 t. kosher salt
• ▢ 1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper

Instructions 

• Cook the wild rice and wheat berries according to the box directions omitting any oil it may call for.
• Once the wild rice and wheat berries have cooked let them cool to room temperature.
• While the wild rice and wheat berries are cooling toast and chop the pecans.
• Add the diced strawberries, basil, and pecan to the cooled wild rice and wheat berries.
• In a small bowl whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing.
• Pour the dressing onto the salad and toss gently until everything is combined.
• Serve immediately or chill in the fridge for up to an hour.

Notes

Be sure to give yourself enough time to make this salad. The wheat berries and wild rice take between 30-45 minutes to cook.

Make sure that the wheat berries and wild rice are cool before adding the strawberries and basil so that the heat doesn't cause the basil to wilt and berries to cook.

Tried this? Leave a comment below!