ITALIAN STYLE RICE SALAD

Italian Style Rice Salad - Delicious, healthful, and simple to prepare rice salad in the Italian style.

Cold long grain rice that has been carefully cooked and chopped salad with a homemade dressing of olive oil, lemon, herbs, and garlic.

This traditional Mediterranean dish tastes fantastic as a main dish for vegetarians and vegans or as a straightforward side salad in the spring.

Also a terrific cold sharing meal for a summer barbecue or gathering.

View our slide show to see the exact steps we take to make our rice salad.

Italian Style Rice Salad Ingredients

• 200 grams Long Grain Rice (1 cup) (uncooked) makes 600 grams (3 cups) once cooked
• Can use basmati rice instead
• 310 mls Cold water ( 1 ¼ cup)

Italian Dressing Ingredients (make your own or buy shop brought one)

• 5 tablespoon Olive oil
• ½ lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning/ Dried Herbs mix of Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Sage, Red Pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoon garlic puree or 4 cloves minced

Italian Salad (this is what we used but get creative and use what you like/have!)

• 8 Sundried Tomatoes Chopped
• 1 Orange Pepper Diced
• ½ Cucumber Diced
• 1 Red Onion Diced
• 100 gram Cherry or Plum Tomatoes (¾ cup) quartered
• 100 g Sweetcorn (¾ cup) we used tinned
• 60 g Green or/and Black Olives (½ cup)
• 4 tablespoon Pine Nuts
• 3 tablespoon Fresh Basil chopped
• 2 tablespoon Fresh Parsley chopped

Optional extras

• 130 gram Cooked Diced Pancetta fry in the Oil from sundried tomato jar or
• 1 tin Tuna drained or
• 200 g Mozzarella Balls or chopped

Instructions

1. Rice should be cooked in advance to allow for cooling. To ensure proper rice cooking, heed the directions in the notes below. If you're including Pancetta, finish cooking it in the sundried tomato oil before letting it cool. Uncooked long grain rice weighing 200 grams and cooked diced pancetta weighing 130 grams
2. Combine all the ingredients for the Italian Dressing to make the dressing. 5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, 12 lemon, 2 teaspoons of pureed garlic, and 1 tablespoon of dried herbs
3. All the ingredients for the chopped Italian salad should be added to the bowl of cooked rice. Mix everything up after pouring the dressing over.
4. Serve with additional fresh herbs in a big dish or plate.
   

How to cook rice for salad recipe?

When the rice is cooked, we want to make sure the grains don't clump together.

The correct proportion to prepare rice for a salad is 1 cup (200g) rice to 1 14 cups (310 ml) cold water. It makes no difference if you don't have any American measuring cups. As long as you follow the instructions above and utilize the ratio of 1 rice to 1 14 cold water, you can use a teacup, wine glass, or mug.

Although basmati rice will taste the same, we used long grain rice.

1. To get rid of starch, rinse the rice first until the water flows clean.
2. Rice should be drained before adding the appropriate amount of water to a pan and bringing to a boil.
3. Once it has reached a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and wait 8 minutes. Don't open the lid; the rice will finish cooking perfectly without needing to be stirred at this point.
4. Turn off the heat after 8 minutes, but keep the lid on for another 5 to 10 minutes. Finally, fluff the grains using a fork.
5. While you make the rest of your salad, transfer to a bowl and set in the refrigerator to help it chill down more quickly.