Indian Spiced Rice Salad
A beautifully vibrant rice salad with fragrant Indian spices, green vegetables, fresh herbs, finished with crunchy naan croutons. This dish goes well with any BBQ meat or a simple roast chicken. A great weekend dish to share with family and friends.
Serves 6-8 as a side
Effort: Easy
Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 15 mins
Gluten free
Ingredients
1 packet Indian spiced rice kit - Not without Spice
1/2 cup flaked almonds
2 tsp cumin seeds
4 spring onions, diced
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup frozen peas, cooked and cooled
100g green beans, trimmed
Zest & juice of 2 limes
1/3 cup olive oil + extra for drizzling
salt
1 large naan, ripped into pieces
Instructions
Place all the contents of the rice kit into a sauce pan with 3 cups of cold water. Bring the rice to a boil, uncovered, at a medium heat before turning the heat down to low. Place a lid ajar over the top to let steam escape for 10-15 mins until the rice is just cooked.
Turn the heat off, place the lid on and leave to finish cooking for 5 mins. Remove the lid, fluff up the rice and cool in a container in the fridge.
While the rice is cooling place another pan of cold water on the hob and bring to a boil. Drop the trimmed green beans in the pan and blanch for 1-2 mins (see hints & tips). Leave the water on the boil, cooking the frozen peas until just cooked - drain and rinse under cold water and set a side.
Once the rice is cooled place in a large bowl, add the cumin seeds, spring onion, almonds, mint, coriander, peas and green beans and toss through the rice.
In a small bowl whisk together the lime zest, juice and olive oil.
Pour over the rice salad, season with salt and toss. Set a side.
Heat a fry pan on high until the pan is hot. Tip in the ripped pieces of naan, generously drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Turn the heat down to medium, fry turning occasionally until golden and crispy. Season well with salt.
To serve top the rice salad with the naan pieces.
Hints & tips
Vegetables - Good alternatives for green beans - snow peas, sugar snap peas or zucchini, blanch as per step 3 (see below for explanation). Alternative for peas - sweet corn or carrot. If using carrot I suggest grating it.
Blanching - Blanching is a cooking process in which a food, usually a vegetable or fruit, is scalded in boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water to halt the cooking process.
Cumin seeds - If you don’t have cumin seeds in the pantry 1 tsp of ground cumin would work.
Serving suggestion - A great salad to go with roast chicken or BBQ meat. This dish is great to take to a party or BBQ gathering.
Portion size - This salad serves 6-8 as a side dish so great for bigger families or for gatherings. It will half nicely if you want a smaller portion.
Storage - It will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. Not suitable for freezing.
