This easy rice salad is quick to prepare with what you have in the fridge. I am sharing my recipe with my ingredients, but you can use other vegetables or even jars of pickled veggies for a different and always tasty rice salad each time.
The more you add to your rice salad, the more delicious and flavorful it will be. You can also choose to make it vegetarian, without cold cuts, or even vegan with just vegetables. Follow my directions for a perfect rice salad!!
If you want more ideas to prepare rice salad in different ways, I leave you some recipes below and right after the photo, we will learn how to prepare the easy rice salad recipe!!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 servings
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer, and Fall
Ingredients for the rice salad
- 1 1/4 cups Basmati rice
- 12 green olives (pitted)
- 2 oz cooked ham (in a single slice)
- 2.5 oz fresh cheese (such as Asiago, Latteria, or Caciotta)
- 2 spring onions
- 1 red bell pepper
- 4 tbsps peas (or frozen)
- 2 oz corn (canned)
- 2 pinches salt
- 2 pinches pepper
- to taste basil
Preparation of the easy rice salad
To prepare the rice salad, clean and wash the spring onions and the bell pepper, then chop them into pieces about 3/4 inch (2 cm) in size.
In a high-sided pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, brown the spring onions and bell pepper for a few minutes, add the salt, add the fresh peas (or frozen), let them flavor, and add a few ladles of hot water.
Add the Basmati rice and let it flavor for a few more minutes, then add enough water for cooking the rice, and cook it on medium heat for the time indicated on the package.
The vegetables will cook perfectly along with the rice, giving everything a delicious flavor. Once cooked, drain everything and cool it first under cold running water to stop the cooking and enhance the colors, then pour it into a large bowl and let it cool completely.
Add the sliced pitted green olives, the corn drained from its liquid, the cheese cut into small pieces, and the chopped cooked ham, dress with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkle of black pepper, some hand-torn basil, and adjust the salt if needed.
You can serve it immediately or store it in the fridge for up to two days, covered with plastic wrap, and…
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Rice Salad Variations
You can replace the cooked ham with roasted turkey. If you don’t like it, you can skip the cheese.
Vegetarian Version
Replace the ham and cheese or just the ham with a small can of marinated mushrooms.
If you don’t digest bell peppers well, you can substitute them with a raw carrot sliced thinly or into rounds.
Other Recipes
HERE and also HERE you can find OTHER rice recipes. If you want to see other types of recipes, you can go back to the HOME.
