Festive Brown Rice Salad
Brown Rice Salad has always been a feature dish at family gatherings. It’s a great option to bring when you don’t know dietary requirements, because it’s vegan, lactose free and gluten free – but none of these labels are what define the dish. It’s simply a great salad with fresh veggies, wholegrain carbs, dried fruits, nuts and seeds. The dressing is lightly spicy from the raw garlic and slightly tangy from the soy sauce.
Capsicum features heavily in this dish. The bold raw flavour is complemented by the earthy brown rice and sweetness of the sultanas. The cashews and sunflower seeds also give a lovely crunch and some added nutrients.
The flavours are akin to a cold fried rice dish, but there is no secondary cooking required once the rice has been prepared and slightly cooled.
This salad can be served immediately, slightly warm. It can also be prepared ahead of time and served cold. The flavours will develop further as everything mingles together. Leftovers are great up to 2 days, but longer than this do start to become a bit softer than is desirable.
It’s best to reserve the toasted nuts and top just before serving if you are making this salad in advance. This retains the crunchy texture best.
This salad is traditionally served at our family Christmas Celebrations and you can find the whole collection of festive recipes here.
Festive Brown Rice Salad
In a medium sized saucepan combine 2 cups room temperature water with 1 cup raw brown rice. Bring to the boil over a medium-high heat and then reduce to a simmer and put the lid on.
Watch carefully that it doesn’t boil over - it should take about half an hour to absorb all the liquid. Once this has occurred, remove the pot from the heat and set aside to cool (at least 15 mins with the lid still on)
Toast the Cashews and Sunflower Seeds in a pan until golden, set aside to cool.
In a mixing shaker, combine the Dressing ingredients. Shake and set aside.
Finely dice the capsicums, slice the spring onions and chop the parsley. Place ingredients into into a large Salad Bowl.
Add sultanas, rice & the dressing that was set aside in step 3 to Salad Bowl and stir to combine.
Just before serving, top with the toasted nuts from step 2 and mix again to combine.
Ingredients
Directions
In a medium sized saucepan combine 2 cups room temperature water with 1 cup raw brown rice. Bring to the boil over a medium-high heat and then reduce to a simmer and put the lid on.
Watch carefully that it doesn’t boil over - it should take about half an hour to absorb all the liquid. Once this has occurred, remove the pot from the heat and set aside to cool (at least 15 mins with the lid still on)
Toast the Cashews and Sunflower Seeds in a pan until golden, set aside to cool.
In a mixing shaker, combine the Dressing ingredients. Shake and set aside.
Finely dice the capsicums, slice the spring onions and chop the parsley. Place ingredients into into a large Salad Bowl.
Add sultanas, rice & the dressing that was set aside in step 3 to Salad Bowl and stir to combine.
Just before serving, top with the toasted nuts from step 2 and mix again to combine.
Notes
Recipe Notes
A very quick shortcut for making this Brown Rice Salad is to use pre-prepared cups or sachets of brown rice. You will need approximately 3 cups of cooked rice. The family pack size of 450g will work.
Yes, Brown Fice Salad can be made by using only Red Capsicum and excluding the Green Capsicum. This is important for Fructan sensitivity.
Instead of using raw garlic, substitute the plain olive oil for garlic infused olive oil.
Additionally, using only the green part of the spring onion is important. The White parts are not suitable for low FODMAP diets.
Key Ingredients
