Bitkisel Cafe: Brown Rice Salad with Chickpeas and Nuts

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN

PER ITALIANO

Brown Rice Salad with Chickpeas and Nuts

Hello,

Is it too hot and you don't feel like eating anything? We have just the recipe for you!

Brown Rice Salad with Chickpeas and Nuts is a lifesaver for us for many reasons. The first of all it is delicious and refreshing! It is easy to prepare. It works great as take away food. We can pack and take it to anywhere.. to the beach, picnic, our travels. A good lunch idea also for those who take their own food to the office.

I used ribe rice for today's recipe because it was what I got at the moment. I previously made this with organic and brown basmati, jasmine, red, black and wild rice or with a mixture of them.

Why is it important for us that our rice is both brown and also organic?

-Brown rice is a whole grain, instead white rice is a refined grain which loses much of its fiber and nutrients during the process. Brow rice is higher in fiber, protein, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals while it has a lower glycemic index.

-Brown rice, unlike white rice, contains all parts of the grain — the bran, germ, and endosperm. This may mean higher exposure to pesticide residues when it comes to conventional rice production which uses over 40 different pesticides to control weeds and insects.That's why we prefer to use organic rice products. As a matter of fact I use organic whenever its about whole grains.

I was inspired by a recipe in Gaz Oakley's beautiful cookbook "Vegan 100". I've made a few changes and additions to the original recipe, adapted it also to our whole food plant based diet.

Ingredients (for 6):
250 g organic brown rice
30 g unsweetened shredded coconut
30 g lightly toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
30 g pecans, roughly chopped
4 spring onions, chopped into small pieces
50 g dried apricots, chopped into small pieces
150 g green - red - yellow bell pepper, chopped into pieces
150 g corn, no sugar added
300 g cooked chickpeas
Fresh juice of 1 lemon

1 TBSP dry mint and 1/2 TBSP dry oregano

Additionally if you'd like;

1 - 2 TBSP dried blackcurrants

Red pepper flakes

Black pepper

Little salt

Curly lettuce for garnish

Preparation:

Cook and drain the rice due to the instructions on its packaging. Rinse it with cold water.

Brown Rice .. preparing Brown Rice Salad with Chickpeas and Nuts

While the rice is cooking start preparing everything else. In a nonstick pan toast shredded coconut very lightly for a short amount of time stirring often with a wooden spoon. It is something that may burn quickly so as soon as it changes its lolour lightly turn the heat off and transfer toasted coconut in a separate plate so that it'd stop cooking further.