Fragrant brown rice salad

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!

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.

• Pea fritters.

• Fish goujons.

• Chicken rissoles.

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.