Belinda Jeffery’s cookbooks are filled with the most
scrumptious salad recipes. My take on her Sicilian Rice Salad uses “Rice Plus”
which is a powerhouse mixture of brown rice, barley, quinoa and seeds that I combine
with extra greens for a really satisfying summery meal.
If you are not fussed on tuna, this salad would work equally
well with chunks of moist roasted chicken.
Plus, it makes the most wonderful leftovers – crunchy, lemony, mmmmm!
.jpg)
Preparation (This needs early preparation at least 2 hours before eating) with actual preparation 30 mins BUT …
please note you need to have the Rice and the Eggs cooked and cooled prior to
assembling this salad. I like to cook
the rice and the eggs in the morning, pop them into the fridge and then they
are ready for the evening meal.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups “Rice Plus” rice cooked per the packet
directions. Then drained, rinsed and
placed on a fresh tea-towel covering a wide tray to be left in the fridge a
minimum 2 hours. You could use regular
rice if you prefer. TIPS AND HINTS: If you decide not to use all the cooked rice, pop the extra in a sealed
freezer bag, freeze and use later in the week.
4 hard boiled eggs
(I always cook a few extra as the rest are so handy for a quick
snack). Cook these eggs in advance, remove the shells and pop into the
fridge for a minimum 2 hours before assembling salad.
TIPS AND HINTS: use the 1 large saucepan and lid. Cook your rice then rinse the pan and later
cook the eggs using the same pan to save on washing up.
2 x 180 gram tins Tuna in Oil. You could use the springwater variety if you
prefer.
3 large stalks of celery – sliced - all ingredients are best sliced ‘chunky
bitesize’ for easy eating
3 large spring onions – roots removed. Stalks sliced
6 lettuce leaves. Washed, dried and torn / chopped
½ cucumber. Cut into quarters long ways - then sliced
1 red onion – quartered and then very finely sliced
Handful Black olives – pitted
½ red chilli (seeds removed) and finely chopped. Optional – leave out or add more.
6 tablespoons of fresh Dill – chopped
3 tablespoons of fresh Basil – roughly torn
Dressing
When making dressing,
stir, taste, adjust with a little more lemon / salt /pepper at a time as
needed.
1/2 - 1 small tin anchovies in oil
(mooshed up with a fork) (depends whether you like anchovies)
½ cup (125ml) Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 clove garlic – crushed
1 ½ - 2 lemons. You
need the zest and about 4 tablespoons of juice plus reserve a wedge for
presentation.
Good Splash of Balsamic Vinegar
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste. Taste first as the olives and anchovies will
add saltiness.
Method
About 30 – 40 minutes
before dinner
Remove the rice and cooked eggs you prepared earlier from
the fridge. Allow to ‘de-chill’ a
little. Slice the hard boiled eggs into quartered wedges.
Prepare the vegetables for the salad.
Prepare the salad dressing.
TASTE and adjust the balance if needed.
A dash more lemon or balsamic? Pepper or salt?
About 10 - 15 minutes
before dinner
In a large wide salad bowl
Assemble the prepared
Tuna, celery, spring onions, lettuce, cucumber, red onion
and olives. Mix together gently.
Heat a very little olive oil in a pan and warm the cooked
Rice – just to take the chill off and add a little toasted crunch. TIP: Not essential – if short on
time, omit this cooking stage
Gently toss the cooked just warmed Rice through the prepared
tuna vegetable salad.
Pour SOME of the salad dressing over Rice
salad. Hold back about quarter of the
dressing.
Stir the salad gently. Add the extra dressing if needed.
Does not need a swim, just a coating.
Taste and adjust flavours if needed
Add the quartered hard boiled eggs and chopped Dill and Basil leaves and give a final gentle stir to combine all the lemony flavours.
Serve.
NOTE re Rice Plus Product.
I purchased this product personally, and this is not a paid endorsement. I simply found this to be a great ingredient to use in this salad and I hope you do too.
Enjoy! Colleen
No comments:
Post a Comment