16 hours Ago By Nicola Roy
Salads often get a bad reputation for being boring, bland or repetitive. This can sometimes but true but often isn't. With the right combination of flavours and ingredients, you can create a delicious and healthy meal that's perfect for prepped lunches when you don't have a lot of time to cook .
Recently, the crispy rice salad craze has been swarming social media, a technique which involves baking rice in the oven to give it a delicious crunch before tossing with other fresh ingredients and dressings. So, as someone who loves to try a new recipe and is always on the hunt for interesting lunch ideas, I decided to give it a go. And I can safely say that it's become a new favourite of mine, unlike any salad I've ever tried before, and so delicious too! The beauty of this salad is that once you've got the rice all crisped up, you can pretty much add anything that you like in order to bulk it out.
I'm a huge fan of an Asian-inspired dish so I decided to use coconut rice with crispy tofu, edamame beans and a peanut dressing, along with some grated carrots, chickpeas and spring onions. And because the rice takes around 40 mins to bake in the oven, you can prep all the other ingredients while that's cooking, so that you just need to mix everything together when the rice is ready. This dish is a great way to use up any leftover rice you might have in the fridge, but you can also use a microwaveable pouch which is what I did just to make it even easier.
Here's everything you'll need to make my version of this incredible rice salad, which was so filling and tasty. I prepared it for dinner, and it was even better the next day - just make sure to store the leftovers in the fridge. Ingredients - for the salad One pouch microwave rice Two small carrots One tin of chickpeas Two spring onions One cup of edamame beans Half a block of tofu Light soy sauce Crispy chilli oil Olive oil Cornflour Chinese five spice Sesame seeds For the peanut dressing One tbsp light soy sauce One tbsp peanut butter One tbsp sriracha One tsp rice vinegar One tsp honey 1/2 tsp garlic granules Method First, preheat your oven to 180C.
Put the rice in a bowl and add one tablespoon each of light soy sauce and crispy chilli oil, give it a good mix and spread it out on a baking tray. Cook this for around 40 minutes, making sure to check it every so often and move the rice around so that it doesn't burn. While this is in the oven, you can get the rest of the ingredients ready.
Grate the carrots and boil the edamame beans for around 10 minutes, if you're using frozen ones, and set aside. Then, drain and dry the chickpeas before tossing with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and one teaspoon of Chinese five spice. Tear the tofu into small chunks and coat with a tablespoon of light soy sauce and a teaspoon of cornflour - this is what will give it that great crunch.
I then cooked both of these separately in the air fryer while the rice was in the oven - the chickpeas for 10 minutes, and the tofu for 15. For the dressing, simply mix all of the ingredients together and gradually add tiny bits of water until you've got your desired consistency. It should be slightly thick still, but not too watery.
Then, once the rice is ready, mix all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl and divide into two portions. Top with sliced spring onion, sesame seeds and the dressing, and it's time to tuck in. This made enough for two portions, so if you're looking to jazz up your usual lunch options then I'd definitely suggest giving this a go.
Ready in less than an hour and full of flavour, it's quickly become one of my favourite lunch recipes, and I can't wait to try it again with other additions..
