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Green Rice Salad

Vegetarian, gluten-free, Mexican salad from the cookbook 'Wahaca – Mexican Food at Home' by Thomasina Miers. A tasty lunch recipe on its own, or can be eaten as a side dish alongside my Tender Spiced Lamb and some salad leaves. *From The Hungry Hungry Husband & Wahaca*
Course Lunch
Cuisine Mexican
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 6 servings
Calories 170kcal

Ingredients

  • 120 g basmati rice
  • 4 small shallots or 1 red or white onion
  • 2 cloves garlic depending on your preference
  • 1 large courgette or 2 small
  • 150 g tomatoes I like small, vine toms best
  • 3 spring onions
  • 1 chilli red or green fine
  • 1 lime (juice of)
  • 100 g feta
  • 60 ml olive oil (for the dressing)
  • 2 tablespoons oil (for frying) we use groundnut oil but you can use anything really
  • pinch caster sugar
  • large handful fresh coriander
  • large handful fresh mint
  • small handful fresh tarragon
  • salt & pepper for seasoning

Instructions

Cook rice:

  • Add 1 mug of rice & 2 mugs of cold water to a pan (it doesn’t matter what size mug as long as the ratio is 1:2, rice:water)
  • Bring to the boil then turn the heat down and let it simmer
  • Stir every now & then to make sure it’s not sticking on the bottom but it will take 10–15 mins to cook — it’s done when all the water has absorbed into the rice
  • When it’s done, just remove the pan from the heat and set aside for now

Prepare and soften vegetables:

  • Finely chop 4 shallots/1 onion
  • Finely chop or mince 2/3 garlic cloves
  • Dice 1 courgette
  • Add 1–2 tbsp of any kind of oil to a large or deep-sided frying pan on a medium heat (use less oil if you have a good, non-stick pan, or more if not)
  • Once it’s hot, add the shallots/onion, garlic, courgette
  • You can add a large handful of frozen sweetcorn at this stage, too; we just never have any in the freezer so I don’t include it
  • Cook them gently so that they take on a little colour and soften nicely (use a lid in a have one as this keep the moisture in) – this should take around 10 minutes
  • When it’s all done, transfer everything to a large bowl

While the rice and courgette mix are cooking, prepare the other ingredients:

  • Quarter or halve 100–150g small tomatoes or dice 4 plum tomatoes
  • Finely slice 3 spring onions
  • Finely chop 1 chilli (red or green is fine) — de-seed it first if you don’t like things spicy
  • Chop 100–150g feta (I just used up what we had left in the fridge this time, which turned out not to be very much!)
  • Finely chop a large handful of each coriander & mint and a small handful of tarragon

Combine everything:

  • Add the rice into the courgettey, shalloty/oniony, garlicky bowl and mix well
  • Then add all the other prepared ingredients and stir it all up to combine

Make dressing:

  • Whisk together 60ml olive oil; juice 1 lime; pinch sugar; s&p
  • Add half of the dressing to the salad, mix well, and taste
  • Add the other half of the dressing if you want (I do), along with extra salt & pepper if needed
  • And that’s it! Simply cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the fridge until you need i

In the morning:

  • Eat on its own — just decant as much as you need to a small tub and take to work with you
  • Or, eat with something meaty and some green salad (try my Tender Spiced Lamb)

Notes

*hot option* just pop the salad in the microwave — it should only take 1 or 2 minutes to heat up, depending on the strength of the machine