Wild Rice Salad

I love the flavor of wild rice. It's nutty and soft and delicious. In India we use rice mostly as an accompaniment to curries and vegetables. But for a rice that's as flavorsome as wild rice, it needs to shine on its own.

Here's a simple recipe for a wild rice salad, the inspiration taken from many recipes around the blogosphere.

Wild Rice Salad 

2 cups wild rice, cooked
3/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
1 cup peas, cooked
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Dressing: 
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp English mustard (English mustard has more zing than regular mustard. If you don't have English, just use regular mustard)
1 tsp Green onion, chopped

Cook the rice. While the rice is still warm after cooking, add the dried cranberries so they plump up. Keep aside. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Mix the salad ingredients in another bowl. Combine the salad and dressing ingredients just before serving.


Obviously this recipe is very forgiving. Go ahead and substitute the nuts or use raisins or other dried fruit instead of cranberries. Skip the peas altogether if you don't like them. Go ahead and give it a shot. I made this for a light summer lunch and it was very well appreciated. Enjoy!

Spinach Rice

I recently went to a modern Andhra restaurant, Maya, in Chennai. Andhra Pradesh is a small state in southern India, whose cuisine is typically very spicy and loaded with masala, tamarind and ground spices.

This restaurant surprised me though. The food was mild, full of subtle flavors and delicious. The one dish that really stood out to me was the lovely spinach rice. I asked my waiter if he could give me the recipe and he, very graciously, told me the ingredients. So I made an attempt at it, and thankfully, it turned out exactly how I'd hoped. (I've added peas to this rice, in order to get in more veggies, but the original recipe didn't have it, so feel free to leave it out).

Spinach Rice (with Peas)

2 cups White or Brown Rice, cooked and cooled

4 cups Spinach, cleaned and washed

1 tbsp Mustard Seeds

1 tbsp Urad Dal/ Bengal Gram

1 large Onion, peeled and chopped fine

2-3 Green Chillies, slit (optional)

1/2 cup Green Peas, cooked (optional)

2 tsp Sesame Oil

Salt, to taste

Heat the oil in a small pan. Add the mustard seeds and urad dal and stir until mustard seeds begin to pop. Add the onions and green chillies and cook until the onions are transparent. Now add the spinach. Continue stirring/ cooking until wilted.

Mix in the cooked rice, peas and salt and fold until fully combined with the spinach mixture.

Delicious! Even my I-won't-eat-anything-green daughter ate it without a complaint!

Peas Dosa

Dosas are very popular breakfast/ lunch/ anytime foods in southern India. Over the years, just as with any other popular food, the dosa has been changed to use several other ingredients including vegetables and different types of grains such as oats or ragi. Here, I've made a peas dosa. This is really easy since it doesn't require fermentation. Enjoy!


Peas Dosa

2 cups Rice, soaked for 3 hours
2 cups grated Coconut
4 Green Chillies
Salt, to taste
2 cups Peas, cooked

Grind together the coconut, green chillies and rice to a smooth batter with water. Add the salt and peas. Mix to combine. Make thick crepes on a heated crepe pan.


Other dosas on this blog: Dosa, Neer Dosa, Tomato Dosa and Pesarat.

Cilantro Peas

Here's something I make very often - its easy and tasty and is great as a quick fix vegetable for any meal.

Grind together about 2 cups of cilantro leaves, 2-3 green chillies and 2 tsp of cumin seeds. Saute the ground mixture with a little asafetida. When the fresh smell disappears, add 2 cups of cooked peas and mix with the curry, so that the peas are coated.

This also works with mushrooms, potatoes and paneer. But I enjoy the peas the most.