Our Christmas Day lunch is a cold meats and salads affair; it's too hot for a roast dinner when it's 40C in the shade in our down-under Summery Australia. (The weather was actually milder this year (at our place) but I had already roasted the chickens on Christmas Eve so no last-minute switch to a hot roast dinner was entertained.
A big bowl of Brown Rice Salad.
Yum!
Amongst the array of salads I made for our family feast was this delicious and wholesome brown rice salad. It's made with healthy brown rice, lots of colourful vegetables, crunchy nuts, fresh herbs and my-favourite feta. The lemon and honey dressing is so very simple. My kind of food!
My version of this salad combines the basis of this recipe, from Katie Workman of The Mom 100 with the currants, nuts and feta from this recipe by Nicola of Eat Well NZ. I reduced the olive oil from 1/3cup to 1/4cup for the dressing and used pecan nuts, instead of cashew nuts, because I had pecans in the pantry. It all mixed together deliciously!
🤎 Wholesome Brown Rice Salad 🤎
*** Omit the nuts if you have a nut allergy.***
Salad Ingredients:
4 cups cooked brown basmati rice
1 cup coarsely grated carrot
1 cup diced cucumber
1/2 cup diced red capsicum
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped spring onion
1/2 cup toasted and roughly chopped pecan nuts
handful (or two) of currants
1 block of your favourite feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
Dressing Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon white white vinegar
1 Tablespoon mustard
salt & pepper
1. Mix all the vegetables, nuts and herbs through the cooked brown rice.
2. Crumble in the feta cheese and sprinkle over the currants.
3. Whisk up the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the top of the salad.
4. Toss to combine. Refrigerate in an air-tight container.
I doubled the recipe and made a huge bowl of this rice salad so there was plenty leftover; some to send home with family and some for us to enjoy bowlfuls of for lunch and dinner the next day. Lazy leftovers have to be one of the best things about Christmas Day lunch!
What did you cook for Christmas at your place that you have leftovers of?
Meg
Thanks for that recipe! It looks delicious. Yes if it was hot like that here, cold meats would be on our menu! Andrea
ReplyDeleteIt's a very versatile recipe, Andrea. You can use different veg, nuts and herbs. Meg:)
DeleteWow, it's really beautiful, Meg. Thanks for the recipe. It sounds delicious. Look at all those colors! (colours) I had filet mignon and a big salad. No leftovers. The steaks were on sale, and at such a deal.
ReplyDeleteYour Christmas meal sound simple and delicious, Stephanie. It's great when you can find nourishing food on sale and make healthy meals from it. I love all the colours of this salad too; vibrant veg full of goodness. Meg:)
DeleteMinus 13C...I can't imagine it being that cold, Laurie. We've had heatwaves here in Australia recently; many would very happily trade you for some nice cold snow. Meg:)
ReplyDeleteWe had rain and storms on Christmas Day.....I'm sure you had some of that too Meg, as the rain moved north from here Brisbane-way. It was still warm enough not to consider a hot meal though. Your rice salad looks delicious, I often make myself one bowl meals like that.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have had a lovely Christmas time, Nanette. We did get some rain with a storm on Christmas Eve and then rain around lunchtime on Christmas Day. About 15mm in total so not a lot in it but so nice to have a break from the heat and the dry weather and to hear it trickling into our water tanks. Meg:)
DeleteThat looks and sounds delicious! I Pinned it for Spring/Summer meals.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it when you make it, Kath. It will be "on repeat" here over the Summer. Meg:)
DeleteThat sounds really fresh and tasty. I will be adding some nice salads to our meals over the next few months.
ReplyDeleteWe eat a lot of salads, Cherie, especially in the warmer months of the year. This one is really nice and I love that it is has lots of healthy veg in it too. Meg:)
DeleteRoast turkey here in cold UK, our weather was typlical we had a cold sunny day. I will keep this salad for our summer BBQ's.
ReplyDeleteIt would be lovely for a summer BBQ, Marlene. I hope you enjoy it when you make it. Meg:)
DeleteThe salad looks delicious. I make something similar myself but use cous cous instead of rice. I'm definitely trying this version, however. X
ReplyDeleteI think this salad could be made with couscous or quinoa instead of rice, Jules. We had a couscous salad on Xmas Day too but with shredded spinach and haloumi. It was nice too. Meg:)
DeleteThe salad looks so delicious. I make a similar one with quinoa. I'll try rice, next time. Thanks for the recipe, Meg. :)
ReplyDeleteI think you could use quinoa, couscous or rice for this recipe, Nil.
DeleteMeg:)
Rice salad is always yummy this recipe looks great.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be making this salad, along with many others, over this long hot Summer, Kathy. We often have salads for lunch and dinner in this sort of weather. Meg:)
DeleteI used the left over roast vegetables cooked quinoa and added a little feta cheese
ReplyDeleteTasted yummy.
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I have to be organised. There is so much of it lol
That's a tasty way to use up roast veg, Angela. I adore roasted vegetables and often use my leftovers up in breakfast omelettes. Meg:)
DeleteThat rice sounds nice, will have to try it. We are living on salads and grills at the moment, with the odd swap for cooked up zucchini,onion and tomato to use up the garden surplus
ReplyDeleteWe ended up having a hot lunch,we were at my brother's place and they decided traditional and it was lovely(inside with the aircon).
Take care
Cheers
Jane.
We eat a lot of salads and grills in the summer weather too, Jane. It suits the season and saves turning the oven on!
DeleteMegXx
This sounds delicious thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I love making salads.
ReplyDeleteI love salads too! They can be so nourishing. I have found a few new salad recipes to try this summer in cookbooks I borrowed from the local library.
DeleteMeg:)