This fragrant, healthy brown rice salad recipe boasts a rainbow of flavours, colours and textures, all brought together with a fragrant orange, honey and mustard dressing.
It is a delicious and nutritious salad, rich in protein and fibre and low in saturated fat.
This easy recipe yields a generous salad, perfect as a side dish for barbecues or summer picnics. It is versatile, allowing for endless substitutions and additions. We absolutely love it!
For more healthy salad recipes, have a look at this sweet potato and kale salad, or this filling Panzanella Toscana salad.
Or, have a gander at this collection of our favourite BBQ salad recipes!
What’s to love about this recipe
- This recipe is both healthy and nutritious, with a low saturated fat content.
- Delightful nutty flavour and crunch from the pecan nuts.
- Very filling, makes a satisfying meal and can be enjoyed as a main dish on its own.
- Fresh and bright.
- A cold rice salad makes an ideal packed lunch.
- The slight sweetness from the honey, raisins and apricots makes it appealing to kids.
- The recipe makes a big batch but can easily be scaled up and down.
- It is gluten-free and suitable for vegetarians (swap the honey for maple syrup).
- Great way to use up a variety of fresh veggies that you have in your fridge.
Key ingredient notes and substitutions
**Please see the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full recipe and list of ingredients.
Honey
The honey adds a lovely sweetness to the salad dressing. You don’t need to use expensive honey like Manuka, any type of honey will work just fine.
For a vegetarian dressing, swap the honey for maple syrup.
Olive oil
Either virgin olive oil or extra virgin olive oil will work.
Dijon mustard
The mustard gives the salad dressing a deeper flavour and a gentle kick of heat.
You can also use whole grain mustard as an alternative. The small mustard seeds look particularly attractive in the salad.
Fresh oranges
When zesting the oranges, be careful to only remove the outer orange part of the peel and avoid the white pith underneath, as it can taste bitter.
Remember to zest the oranges before juicing them!
Red onion
You can also use white onion, brown onion or shallots.
Brown rice
You can also make this salad using a whole-grain brown rice and wild rice blend, which creates a lovely combination of flavours and textures.
If you’d like something unique, you can incorporate black rice into the salad. All the bright colours from the veg look smashing against the black!
You can make this salad with white rice too, but brown rice should remain the first choice. It’s quite a rustic salad that’s better suited to the textures and flavours of brown rice.
Vegetable stock
To make things more convenient, we use vegetable stock cubes in this recipe. However, if you prefer, you can make your own stock from scratch.
Red pepper
Red bell peppers (red capsicum) add a pop of colour and just look beautiful in the salad, but you can also use orange, green and yellow bell peppers.
Dried apricots
If you don’t have apricots on hand, you can easily substitute them with dried peaches. They will provide a similar sweet and fruity flavour to the salad.
Sultanas
You can use raisins instead of sultanas if you prefer. Both options will give the salad a bit of sweetness and chewiness.
Pecan nuts
Instead of pecan nuts, you can use any nuts of your choice, such as walnuts, pistachios, almonds, cashews etc. Don’t skip on the nuts though, they add such a nice crunch to the salad.
Tinned corn
We use tinned corn in this recipe for its convenience. However, if you have cooked corn on the cob available, you can strip the kernels from it and use them instead.
You can also use frozen corn, just thaw and drain it thoroughly first.
Coriander
If you’re not a fan of coriander, you can substitute it with flatleaf parsley or even add parsley as an additional herb to the salad.
Also, consider adding fresh basil or fresh dill. They all provide a fresh and herbaceous flavour to the salad.
How to make this recipe – Quick summary
To make the dressing:
- In a small bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
To make the rice:
- In a large saucepan, heat the oil and fry the onions together with the cumin and cinnamon until soft and translucent.
- Combine the dry rice with the onions and stir well to ensure that every grain of rice is coated in the aromatic onions, spices and oil.
- Add the vegetable stock and salt. Cover the saucepan with a tight fitting lid.
- Cook the rice until it is fully cooked and has absorbed all the water.
Top tip: To check if the rice is done, take a few grains and gently press them between your fingers. The rice should be tender and easily break apart.
- Transfer the cooked rice to a large bowl and pour the salad dressing over the hot rice. Mix well, ensuring the rice is coated evenly. Allow it to cool to room temperature.
To assemble the brown rice salad:
- Add the chopped red peppers, dried apricots, sultanas, pecan nuts, corn and chopped coriander to the cooked and cooled rice. Combine well and serve.
Additions
Consider adding the following optional ingredients to the salad:
- Edamame beans.
- Sesame seeds or roasted pine nuts.
- Cherry tomatoes.
- Red cabbage.
- Black olives (Kalamata olives).
- Seeds like pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
- Feta cheese, halloumi or mozzarella cheese.
- Dried cranberries.
- Spring onions, or green onions.
- Black beans.
- Roasted sweet potato.
- Crisp cucumbers.
- A tablespoon of lemon juice.
- Freshly ground black pepper.
Pairs well as a side salad with..
- A barbeque.
- Roast chicken, beef and pork.
- Fish and seafood.
- With sandwiches or wraps, like this posh fish finger sandwich.
Make this a vegan brown rice salad
All the ingredients in the salad are already vegan-friendly. The only substitution you need to make is for the honey, which can be replaced with maple syrup.
Storage
The rice salad will keep well in the fridge for up to 24 hours when stored in an airtight container.
It’s equally good served cold from the fridge, or at room temperature. Do not leave it outside in the warm for longer than 2 hours.
It’s not suitable for freezing.
Healthy brown rice salad
Ingredients
For the dressing
- 30 millilitres honey
- 60 millilitres olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard or whole grain mustard
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- zest from two oranges
- 75 millilitres orange juice
For the rice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 150 grams red onion finely chopped
- 0.5 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 500 grams brown rice
- 1000 millilitre vegetable stock
- 0.5 teaspoon salt
For the salad
- 120 grams red pepper chopped into small cubes
- 100 grams dried apricots chopped
- 100 grams sultanas
- 50 grams pecan nuts roughly chopped
- 150 grams tinned corn or kernels from one corn cob
- large handful of coriander chopped
Instructions
Make the dressing
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing and set aside.
Make the rice
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.
- Add the red onion, cumin and cinnamon into the saucepan and fry until the onions are soft and translucent. If the onions are browning too fast, turn the heat to low.
- Combine the dry rice with the onions and stir well to ensure that every grain of rice is coated in the aromatic onions, spices and oil.
- Add the vegetable stock and salt and give it a quick stir.
- Turn the heat to low. Cover the saucepan with a tightfitting lid.
- Cook the rice until done and all the water has been absorbed. About 20-25 minutes.Top tip: To check if rice is done, take a few grains and gently press them between your fingers. The rice should be tender and easily break apart.
- Transfer the cooked rice to a large salad bowl and pour the dressing over the hot rice. Mix well, ensuring the rice is coated evenly with the dressing. Allow the rice to cool to room temperature.
Assemble the salad
- Add the chopped red pepper, dried apricots, sultanas, pecan nuts, corn and chopped coriander to the cooled rice. Combine and serve.
Nutrition
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