Friday, February 3, 2012

Brown rice salad, and how I got over my fear of.



Oh my god, I know. Rice salad's hard to come at at the best of times, but to make the rice brown? What am I, trying to kill you?

Well I've recently adopted brown rice with gusto, after finding out it's actually nowhere near as awful as I'd been led to believe. And when I posted on Facebook that I liked it now, everyone was all "duh, it's awesome" and I felt like that kid who only finds stuff out way later than everyone else because they're either really unpopular or they've spent too much time reading books and not paying attention to the actual, real world.

Oh wait. I am that kid.

So brown rice. Where have you been all my life? I eat brown everything else, and I knew I was supposed to eat brown rice, but it seemed so chewy and hard and gross and would take over the whole dish with its brown-ricey flavour. Again, as with many food things, I was so wrong.

I like being wrong sometimes. If it leads to awesomeness, anyway.

So. eat. is good.

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked brown rice
1 punnet grape/cherry tomatoes, halved, or 2 very ripe red tomatoes
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 cup danish feta (or any feta really, but I like it salty)
1 handful each basil, mint and parsley, shredded
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
any other veggies you want to add. I added green beans here, but pumpkin or sweet potato would be rad.
juice of 1 lemon and rind of half
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
big drizzle of olive oil
salt and cracked black pepper

Directions

1. Mix. duh.

Do check that the seasoning gives it a ton of flavour... it can be a bit blah otherwise. Eat. Feel your insides having a party... in a good way.

23 comments:

  1. hmmm interesting I will grab some when I am shopping, thanks, the recipe looks similar to what I do.,..with WHITE haha x

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  2. I know! It took me the longest time to warm to white rice salads as it was. To be honest, brown doesn't taste all that different. I would so tell you if it did!

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  3. I love brown rice! I prefer it to white now, and one of my frequent lunches is a salad with it :-D Have you tried wild rice? I'd like to.

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  4. Once! and I think I liked it. I think.

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  5. Ooh yum! I recently discovered brown rice too, it's way more filling than white and it actually has flavour - I guess the slightly chewier texture might put some off it, but I love it and the kids didnt even notice the difference!
    Thanks for the recipe, I will try it.

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  6. Yep, the chewy thing is what scared me. You should see me with barley! Gross! But I actually find this quite good.

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  7. Yum! One of my fave salads is a rice one. I throw cherry tomatoes, red onion in wedges in the oven with a costing of garlic, salt, oil and a sprinkle of sugar to bake a bit. I then throw that into a bowl of cooled cooked rice with parsley, pine nuts, fetta, salt and a bit more oil. SO good!

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  8. this looks and sounds de-licious!! I have this gorgeous brown rice salad that has cashews and raisins and other yummy stuff in it...may have to dig it up and pop it on the blog too! brown rice is awesome!!!!

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  9. I love brown rice! Will definitely have to try this salad recipe out.

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  10. Rachel from Redcliffe StyleFebruary 4, 2012 at 4:00 PM

    Yummy, that looks fantastic.  I hated brown rice growing up, but that's usually the only rice we'll eat now.  They must have changed it somehow over the years from something yucky and chewy to something delicious.  Even my two girls love it.  Rachel xx

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  11. Rachel from Redcliffe StyleFebruary 4, 2012 at 4:00 PM

    That sounds great!

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  12. I was thinking that! How have they made it awesome after all this time?

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  13. RAAAAAAIIISINSSSS! What on earth are you thinking? Are they really good in a salad? I'm scared!

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  14. ANB of Suburban SonnettFebruary 6, 2012 at 7:57 PM

    Made this tonight and it's great! Even the not-quite-two-year-old ate it which makes it a huge success.

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  15. Wow, I'm impressed! I hope veggie baby eats brown rice at that age :)

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  16. Haha I'd never have thought so ... ;-)

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  17. I'm going to give this one a go. I love brown rice. It's nutty and awesome.

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  18. I used to be so scared, but not any more!

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  19. I love brown rice salad but I've never made it. Inspired now!

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  20. I can't believe how simple but delicious it is :)

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  21. We are big fans of brown rice! Even my fussy kids prefer it over regular white rice. Will try this recipe when i get home in Lismore!

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