Tasty Bites: Super Summer Rice Salad

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

Just like I love hot soups in the winter, I love cold summer salads when it’s hot and sticky outside. This is one of my favorite summer salads because of all of the wonderful flavors and textures. It also makes good use of garden fare – peppers, basil, and lettuce. It keeps well and makes great leftovers for lunch the next day.

The combination of brown rice, wild rice, and garbanzo beans is low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. This combination of grains and beautiful colors make this salad a good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin B6, folate, manganese and healthy phytochemicals. And you just can’t beat the crunch factor of the healthy fats in the pistachios!

Let me know if you like this, or better yet, tell me about your favorite summer salad!

Super Summer Rice Salad

Serves 6

1 ½ cups cooked brown rice

1 ½ cups cooked wild rice

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup pistachio nuts

1 clove minced garlic

½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

 2 tablespoons canola oil

½ cup garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

½ red pepper, finely chopped

⅓ cup red wine vinaigrette (bottled or homemade)

½ cup fresh basil, chopped

Lettuce cups or mixed greens

Cool rice to at least room temperature. Place rice, cranberries, pistachios, onion, garlic, pepper, oil, garbanzo beans and red pepper in large bowl.

Drizzle vinaigrette over mixture and toss to combine. Add basil and gently mix. Cover and chill. Serve in lettuce cup or over mixed greens.

Candy Steele is a registered nurse who has worked with cardiac patients for over thirty years. “Functional foods” have become her passion, and she enjoys sharing her love of cooking, a random life and a faithful Jesus with her friends at Steele (the Day). She is blessed with three grown children, a new daughter-in-law, and a kind and patient husband who only knows how to fix popcorn (but she’s OK with that).