Nutty black & white rice salad with peppers & raisins

When I lived in London many moons ago I did a brief stint at a catering company working as a cook. I made a rice salad that had red peppers and cashew nuts in it and was so delicious. This nutty black and white rice salad with peppers and raisins and ginger, soy and honey dressing is my attempt to create my memory of this salad but better.

For this rice salad, you can use wild/ black and brown rice or wild and white rice or one or the other I have used a combination of black rice which gives this salad a lovely nutty flavour and white rice.

The raisins add sweetness and the seeds and nuts a lovely crunchy element. If you want to spice things up, add, wasabi paste, a freshly chopped chilli (as much as you like) or a pinch or two of dried chilli flakes.

A few other salad recipes you might like:

Roasted vegetable and cous cous salad

Greek Panzanella salad

Pear, blue cheese and walnut salad with a maple vinaigrette

Roast carrot and barley salad with pickled sultanas

Panzanella salad with white anchovies and fennel

Avocado and fennel salad with orange

My favourite salads for a braai / BBQ

My best citrus recipes for winter

Nutty black & white rice salad with peppers & raisins & a ginger, soy & honey dressing

A delicious and flavour-packed rice salad recipe with peppers, cashew nuts, toasted sunflower seeds and a soy, ginger, honey and lemon dressing.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Salad:

• 1 cup wild or black rice
• 1 cup white rice
• 1 large red bell pepper deseeded and stem removed, cut into small dice.
• 1 large bunch of spring onions sliced (white and firm green parts)
• 20 gms flat-leaf parsley with the stems and leaves roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins or sultanas or a mix
• ½ cup toasted sunflower seeds
• 100 gms roasted cashews

Dressing:

• 2 Tbs soya sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil optional
• Juice from a lemon
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 clove of garlic crushed
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1/2 – 1 tsp wasabi paste a small chilli chopped, or a pinch of dried chilli flakes – optional if you want heat
• A few mint leaves chopped (optional)
• Salt and pepper
•  

Instructions

• Cook your rice according to the pack instruction making sure you don’t overcook it. Add a teaspoon of salt to each of the pots while it's cooking. Rinse the cooked rice under cold water to stop the cooking process and drain well. Set aside.
• Chop the red pepper, spring onion and parsley and toss with through the rice. Add the raisins, toasted sunflower seeds and cashew nuts reserving a few to sprinkle over the top.
• To make the dressing, mix all the ingredients together. Shake them in a jar to easily emulsify.
• Toss the dressing through the rice salad and serve as a delicious side at any braai.

Author: Sam Linsell

I developed this recipe for South African raisins

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