Ingredients
1 ½ cups long grain brown rice (to get 3 cups cooked), you can sub in quinoa
1 cup diced yellow pepper
1 cups sliced spinach
½ cup of seeded and diced tomato
½ cup sliced celery
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 shallot, diced
¼ cup green onion tops, sliced (the green part only)
1–2 tsp natural cane sugar
¼ cup dried cherries, sliced in half
½ cup slivered almonds, toasted
¼ tsp salt, or to taste
Pepper, to taste
Instructions
Prep:
Cook the rice according to the directions, making sure to rinse the rice before cooking
After the rice is cooked, spread it out on a baking sheet and allow it to cool for 1 hour. This is important for the overall appearance of the rice salad and keeping it from looking like “rice mush”
Dice the vegetables, garlic, shallots, onions and cherries to small diced size and set aside in a large prep bowl.
Place all diced vegetable EXCEPT the spinach into salad bowl and set aside
Slice the almonds and toast them until slightly golden and set aside to cool (around 5 min)
Blend lemon juice, salt and sugar into a dressing and set aside
Pour dressing mixture over the vegetables and mix gently with your hands
Add the rice, spinach and almonds and mix gently by hand
Taste and add more salt, pepper or sugar to taste
Transfer to a pretty salad bowl
Serve at room temperature or cold
Notes
Tools:
Rice cooker
Good knife
Blender
Salad bowl