Hey there!
Finally a new savoury recipe! I know, I haven’t posted one in ages but this specific one is just perfect for the current barbecue season. I mean who doesn’t receive at least one invitation for a barbecue get together during summer time?
I’m sure you’ve all experienced it. S*** barbecue, but I don’t eat meat… Well I hope they don’t just have a green salad to enjoy with the steaks and bratwursts. I mean a serving of green salad will never ever fill me up and I’ll probably just end up eating four slices of cake for dessert because…
Well let’s be serious again. I mean usually people serve something else than just green salad or they might even ask you to bring something along. And in that case I’ve got the perfect thing for you to bring as a addition to the salad buffet. I just came up with the perfect fresh summery salad, which definitely won’t leave you starving at the end of the day. And I am sure even your friends who eat meat will enjoy this yumminess and obviously if you happen to eat meat I am sure you’ll love it as well. It ‘s perfect for anyone really, well for anyone who has got a soft spot for Greek food to be a hundred per cent accurate.
I personally love Greek food, well at least the stuff marketed as Greek food you get up here in Switzerland. I am sure it is rather authentic though. Well I hope so.
Anyways I usually order dolmades, you know the grapevine leaves stuffed with rice, whenever I spot them on the menu of any Greek inspired restaurant. Since I haven’t got a clue where on earth I could buy grape wine leaves I just decided to create a rice salad inspired by the flavours used in the rice filling for dolmades.
Besides the classic flavours of cinnamon, lemon, garlic and mint I also decided to add some veggies, which were in my case cucumber, tomato and capsicum as well as some finely chopped red onion. Oh and I nearly forgot, I used brown rice instead of risotto rice, since I personally really like its slightly nutty flavour .
Well the outcome of this was absolutely divine. I was actually rather surprised how similar this tasted to the classic dolmades filling.
I guess now is the time to let you know the recipe.
By the way, this recipe serves four to five people but if you are bringing this to a barbecue with lots of other salads I guess you could even make this amount for up to eight.
280 g brown rice
1 cucumber (approx. 240g)
2 tomatoes
1 big red onion
1 capsicum
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 lemons / 80 ml lemon juice
2-3 tbs vinegar
a big bunch of fresh mint (worth approx. 2 tbs of it finely chopped)
salt
a dash of cinnamon
- Steam your rice according to package directions, this will probably take around 45 minutes.
- When you steamed your rice, let it cool down completely.
- When your rice has cooled down chop the tomatoes, cucumber and the capsicum into small cubes.
- Finely chop up mint, garlic and the onion.
- Add all the ingredients into a bowl (rice, vegetable cubes, mint, garlic, onion).
- Pour in the juice of two lemons, 2 tbs of vinegar and sprinkle in a dash of cinnamon. Also add salt to taste.
- Mix well so all the ingredients are distributed evenly through the salad. Let your rice salad sit in the fridge for at least an hour so the flavours can come together.
Voila! That’s it a delicious rice salad perfect for those barbecue get-togethers on hot summer days or even as a lunch on the go. I personally think a rice salad is such a perfect dish for non- meat eaters when the barbecue season hits. It can happen that there are only green salads, the classic carrot salad or a fancy caprese at those usual barbecues, which won’t really fill you up when you’re skipping the meat. Though I am pretty sure that this salad won’t only please us veggie people out there, I am actually convinced that even meat eaters will absolutely adore it. It just tastes divine. The combination of the nutty brown rice with the fresh vegetables and the tangy dressing just makes a perfect paring, which shouldn’t be missing at all those summer barbecues, which there are more and more to follow.
Cheers to summer!
aspoonfulofnature says
yumm love this!! so many summer vibes 😀
https://aspoonfulofnature.wordpress.com/
fannythefoodie says
aa thank you:)
denizatayy says
Yumm! x
fannythefoodie says
thanks:)! x