Asian Flavours Rice Salad

I have been making this rice salad for a number of years and it’s always a favourite to take to barbecues or summer parties. If you select the ingredients carefully you can make it 100% organic/bio. The only items to pay particular attention to are the oil and soy sauce. I use tamari soy sauce, it’s wheat/gluten free. I’ve discovered both light and dark varieties, though the dark is a bit harder to find. Of the oils, nut or peanut is a better alternative, just make sure that it is mechanically processed; cold-pressed, expeller-pressed, or naturally pressed.

You can make this in advance and leave it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat, or go to the barbecue, eat it on the same day as preparing, although it has been used as a breakfast food on several late night/early morning sessions!

OK, let’s get to it:

Salad Ingredients
200gm basmati rice
3 spring onions
1 large red pepper
150gm sunflower seeds
150gm unsalted peanuts
1 bunch coriander leaves

Dressing Ingredients
50ml sesame oil
3 garlic cloves
dash of salt & pepper to taste
juice of one lemon
200ml nut or peanut oil
100ml dark soy (tamari) sauce

Preparation

Start with the dressing so it can be infusing for a while. Peel and crush the garlic cloves and mix with the rest of the dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar, shake well and put aside. Would be good to do this a few hours before to let it infuse for a while, but not absolutely necessary.

Next, we need to dry roast the sunflower seeds and peanuts. Heat a stainless steel frying pan on a medium to high heat, dry, without oil. Put in the sunflower seeds and toss and stir for about 5 minutes, until the seeds begin to brown, some may get browner than others but that’s OK, don’t let them burn. Remove from heat and put them in a bowl. Put the pan back on the heat and repeat the process for the peanuts. Add the peanut to the sunflower seeds.

Let’s do the rice. I have a rice cooking method I’ve used for at least 30 years, it works every time (for basmati, at least). put plenty of water into a pan and bring to the boil. Salt the water if you need the taste. Make sure that there is enough water to cover the rice about three times. When the water is boiling, put in the rice. Wait a few seconds, then stir to unstick from the bottom of the pan. You may need to stir again about half way through. When you put the rice in the pan, set a timer for 9 minutes, this is the only critical part of the process. After exactly nine minutes, pour out into a colander or sieve and put under cold, running water for a few seconds. This will stop it cooking further. You can put the rice on one side to drain.

De-seed and clean the red pepper, and chop into small dice.

clean the spring onions and chop fairly small.

Clean and chop the coriander leaves.

That’s it. Now it’s time to assemble.

Put the cool, cooked rice into a large bowl and fork through lightly to break it up. Add the pepper, nuts and seeds, coriander and spring onions. Stir enough to distribute all the ingredients, but not too much.

Now, give the dressing jar another good shake and strain into the rice. Stir it through, once again, just enough to distribute the dressing evenly.

Pop it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.

Give it a quick stir before serving.

It goes well with just about everything.