What would you put in a rice salad?

[bumbleweed]

Need to make one for a buffet, and dont want to make something really bland with just a few pieces of pepper and sweetcorn floating around in plain rice.

Can anyone tell me how to do a nic (veggie) rice salad?

nic = nice

Using wild rice as well as ordinary rice works well

I tend to make mine up with spring onions, garlic, orange green and red peppers - tasty and colourful

Some of the following perhaps ...

Olives, a nice dressing, small cubes of cheese, some nuts (walnuts perhaps), fresh herbs, puy lentils, sunblush tomatoes, very finely chopped red onions, sultanas, peppers.

I usually put in kidney beans, diced cucumber,tomato, redonion or spring onion, diced peppers, mushroom. I fry the mushroom, peppers and onions first and cook kidney beans. I mix it in with basmati rice then add soy sauce and a little balsamic vinegar it tastes nice. Or you could add the same ingredients but use a mint lemon juice and olive oil dressing for a fresher flavour.

curry powder? raisins? spices?

I love rice dishes, but it is a standing joke in put house about my Mum's 'rice and pea' buffet dish! Sorry, when I read your thread title, I had to snigger to myself!

Rice sald is work of the devil (ditto pasta salad). Something like chickpeas or cannellini works better.

Some ground rules...

no nasty bottled dressings. Home made vinaigrette only (oil/vinegar/mustard)

use tiny deep red cherry tomatoes cut in half,not chunks of water big tomatoes

onions fine,but no big chunks. Either chives,spring onions or wafer thin slices od red onion

grilled red peppers are great. Either uy in jars or make your own

stir in baby spinach (a while beforehand so it wilts)

to beef them up a bit,good things are fetta (crumbles),bacon bits,avocado (laid in slices and added last-mushes them up if you try to mix them in)walnuts

herbs a must-basil or coriander

all ingreds. so far sound great. Don’t forget that fruit works well too - diced mango, maybe some pineapple, orange segments, finely chopped dried apricots are great, maybe raisins, use a little lemon or lime juice. Nuts and seeds add texture. It is all in the balance and mix I guess.
I tend to pick a fruit, a nut variety, 2 or 3 salad vegs, diced finely, one fresh herb and seasoning.
If using peppers, either chargrill/roast and dice first or use very finely chopped - raw peppers can give many people indigestion.

moondog, I'm doing a pasta salad as well -I know its really boring and vile usually, but I'm doing own catering for 65 people for dd's naming ceremony in a couple of weeks and need to do easy things (so cannellini nice idea but out of the question)

Dior, my MIL's rice salad is the same - I was helping her at her christmas party - she used a packet of el blando own brand long-grain rice and a tin of sweetcorn and a raw green pepper - yuk!

thanks everyone - great ideas - will use a combination of what has been suggested, and should be no hassle too

pine nuts... (very expensive but....)

.. i was going to say you only need a few.

Eh bw??
You could do cannellini beans for that number no probs!!

Ah,the great British buffet
My mother and I have a wheeze describing all the truly terrible examples we have come across....

Yes. Toast the pine nuts first.
Also grated carrot and beetroot is good. I think the trick is to have no more than 50% rice.

I love pine-nuts! I guess they are expensive but I dont notice as I just always get them.

Know what you mean about raw peppers bagelbird - its just a bit of a chew grilling or roasting and them chopping up - could saute with the onions maybe?

sorry moondog - total spaced out moment - I forgot about the existence of cannelini beans - I was thinking it was some kind of fancy folded pasta thing ( would that be canneloni??)

are you on about chucking them in the rice salad or doing a bean salad instead?

Bean salad instead ofwas what I meant.Also a chickpea one (chickpeas,cherry tomatoes,fetta,mint and red onions.Delicious)
You can slip in a pasta salad as well if you must.

I make a nice peruvian rice salad that has always goen down well.

white rice, olives, mixed leaves, cucumber, peppers, green beans, boiled eggs, cherry toms, onions, avocado

dressing - garlic, mustard, yoghurt, salt, pepper, olive oil, sunf oil. sugar.

Dp and I can eat it by the bucketful.

Er..what's Peruvian about that then Kelly??
[smile

I have no idea!
It's from a carribean cook book I have, and apparently they eat it in peru.

Curiouser and curiouser.........

I'd go with moondog's chickpea suggestion if I were you - much tastier!!
but then I'm another one who's had far too many dodgy rice and pasta salads to bother making one myself!

kelly that sounds yummy - is peru in the caribbean tho?

moondog you have converted me to chickpea salad - would you believe me if I said I do actually do a nice pasta salad? - I just make a veg pasta dish with courgettes, peppers, pinekernels, garlic and a v light tomato sauce and serve it cold - goes down a treat usually

I am amazed how many people have something to say about rice salad - the memories of dodgy buffets abound - next thread will be about pork pies haha

lol bumbleweed

rice salad is horrible

you'll have loads left

bw...sorry but it sounds like sick
Am firmly in the Enid school of thought when it comes to rice calad,and hey! I love rice....