I hate rice salads. His Nibs loves rice salads.
I hate brown rice in particular. His Nibs loves rice, especially brown rice.
His Nibs hates pumpkin, capsicum and rocket lettuce. I, of course, love all three.
We’ve been together forty years – it’s a miracle really!
For the past decade or so I have experimented with every conceivable kind of rice salad recipe. This is a mish mash of so many different recipe combinations I’ve lost track.
This recipe works for us. It is a modern miracle approaching biblical significance.
You can eat it cold, room temperature or heated. It is one of the best comfort foods. Like ‘THE SALAD FOR THOSE WHO HATE SALADS’, this RICE SALAD flies off the plate when we entertain.
Friends have requested this recipe for some months now. I apologise for the delay. The weather now lends itself for this dish, although I eat it heated up during winter as a comfort food.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup of brown rice
- 1 red capsicum
- 1 yellow capsicum
- ½ pumpkin, preferably Qld blue
- 1 Spanish onion
- 60gm of pine nuts (almond slivers/flakes option)
- Rocket lettuce or Baby spinach
- dried basil (I know I’ll explain later)
- olive oil.
The Brown Rice Salad
- Chop your capsicums and pumpkin into small bight size pieces.
- Roughly chop you onion.
- Put them into a baking dish with olive oil. Swish them around to make sure the vegetables are well coated with oil, and then sprinkle them with a healthy large pinch of dried basil. (Dried basil works better in this dish, for some mysterious reason, than the herbs I grow. They’re stronger and more aromatic). Season with pepper and salt.
- Put them in the oven at whatever is the right temperature for your type of oven. Mine is fan forced so it’s 170C. Do them to your personal preference. I like my capsicums well roasted; my pumpkin I pull out early because I want it to disintegrate and become so mushy it coats the rice. I bake the pumpkin because it tastes better when baked rather than boiled or steamed, and I want that sweet roast pumpkin flavour.
- Dry roast your nuts.
- Boil the crap out of the brown rice. Follow the instructions on the pack. If you do the fast boil method, then it’ll take 20-25 minutes.
- Take a healthy handful of rocket .
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl. The rocket will wilt, which is what it is supposed to do, so don’t panic. Stir ingredients through.
- You don’t need any dressing as the oil and the pumpkin coat the rice. MAGIC!
A MUST.
You must taste test the dish at this stage to make sure it is as you want it to be. Be warned, however, your other half may deem this his right, and there will be a struggle over the taste testing step in the process.
ENJOY!
boeufblogginon 
I like rice salad, but this one does look exceptional.
Joan , just made your rice salad recipe with the addition of quinoa and feta which was an absolute hit and feed a cast of thousands , kids and adults alike all declared it fantastic! many thanks, really enjoyed the chats at the golf club, you are an exceptionally interesting person. look forward to maybe catching up and checking out the christmas bush !?
Hey Kerry, I am so glad the recipe worked for you guys. It’s a little ripper of a recipe, absolutely fail-safe and idiot proof (something I need). I will add your extra ingredients when I next make it, which will probably for next weekend. No recipe is set in stone. They are a moveable feast. (Bwahahaha! Pun intended). It was great meeting you. Last weekend was fun. I look forward to your visit to check out my recalcitrant Christmas Bush, bless it. I’ve got your email details now I think c/- of the blog and will send you contact details. Cheers. J.
If you hate rice salads, I have recipes for indian fried rice and this one dish where you stir mincemeat into flavoured rice if you’d like. Just reply and I’ll dig them up, they should be ok, Gordon Ramsay recipes. Indian fried rice known as pilau.