Arborio Rice with Spring Vegetables, Dill and Red Wine Vinaigrette
Book Description
Elevating salads to their rightful place as stylish, healthy, satisfying dishes, The Well-Dressed Salad offers more than eighty recipes exploring exciting textures and zingy flavors. As well as putting a fresh spin on classic salads, such as Caesar salad, the book brings together unusual salad dishes from around the world where salads are an art form: the Mediterranean, North Africa, Asia and South America. The chapters are organized by ingredient, from beans, lentils and grains, leaves and greens, to vegetables, fruit, noodles and rice to meat, fish and poultry.
My sister Teresa makes a delicious concoction called Confetti Rice Salad. I have modified her idea slightly by using arborio rice with spring vegetables. Arborio is a stubby flat rice that is mainly used to make risotto. Far heartier than standard rice, it will retain its texture without going soggy.
1 bunch of thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2.5 cm/1 inch pieces
100 g/3 1/2 oz/1 cup fine green beans, trimmed
salt
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
4 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped
200 g/7 oz jar artichokes, drained and cut into quarters
1 red (bell) pepper, de-seeded and finely chopped
20 black olives, pitted and halved
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
CLASSIC RED WINE VINAIGRETTE:
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
7 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cook the rice in boiling water until al dente. Drain, rinse with cold water and drain again, then place in a large mixing bowl.
Blanch the peas, asparagus and beans in separate pans of salted water until al dente. Drain and immediately immerse in iced water. Drain and dry on tea towels (dishtowels) and place in the bowl with the rice.
Add the onion, spring onions (scallions), artichokes, (bell) pepper, olives, dill, parsley and mint.
Combine all the vinaigrette ingredients in a screw-top jar, shake well and pour the dressing over the salad. Combine well, taste and add more salt and vinegar, if necessary, and serve.
GET ORGANIZED The dressed salad will keep for 4 hours, but do not add the onion until 1 hour before serving. The dressing, blanched vegetables and pasta can be prepared in the morning and stored in the refrigerator.
VARIATIONS Orzo or other small pasta could be used in place of the rice, cooked fresh baby artichokes would be much better than bottled if you have time to prepare them. Shelled broad (fava) beans could be added.
