This protein-packed vegan Brown Rice Salad comes together with the amazing textures of green beans, mushrooms and lima beans. All of it is dressed with a delicately flavored orange-cashew dressing. Gluten-free and soy-free.
Brown bag lunches can be a charged issue in our home. I want them to be healthy and tasty, he wants them to be … well… a certain way. Desi is one of those guys who will eat at his desk every single day. So, according to him, the food has to be such that he can eat with a fork while he types with the other hand. It can’t be anything spillable because he’s not going to be looking at the food, see? He has eyes only for the computer screen.
So sandwiches are usually out. Too messy, according to Mr. Persnickety. And so is anything that, heaven forbid, might require a knife too. Which leaves me with a narrow range of foods I can cook, like pastas, biryanis, pilafs or risottos.
Yesterday, I had no more than 30 minutes to cook up a brown bag lunch that met both of our needs and that’s when I came up with a delicious idea for a brown rice salad with dill. Dill and rice are a winning flavor combination, and the nutty brown rice is a perfect foil for the assertive dill. To bring these two delicious ingredients together, I made a dressing that would combine some typical salad dressing ingredients with warm Indian spices.
I put some brown rice in the rice cooker while I went out to walk Opie and by the time I got back it was ready and waiting for me. After that all I had to do was chop up a couple of veggies, bloom some spices and blend them with the other dressing ingredients, and within minutes I had a delicious and extremely nutritious meal on my hands that no fussy eater could turn their nose up at.
It’s the weekend, friends, so I’m going to stop now so you can go on and enjoy yours. But here’s to healthy meals and fun weekends, and may this one last forever!
Brown Rice Salad with Dill
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup brown rice, cooked
- 2 cups green beans or haricot vert, cut into one-inch pieces. You can use frozen.
- 1 cup button or crimini mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups frozen or canned lima beans (use any other bean as a substitute. Chickpeas or red kidney beans would be great in this)
- 1 small onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1 cup fresh dill, thick stems removed, leaves chopped
- Dressing Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 dry red chillies
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- Juice of one large orange
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 10 cashew nuts
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Make the dressing:
- Heat 1 tsp of the coconut oil and add the coriander seeds and cumin seeds. Saute for about two minutes over medium-high heat until they start to turn color. Remove to a blender.
- Add to the blender the red chillies, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, cashew nuts and salt and ground black pepper.
- Blend until the dressing is smooth and creamy.
- Make the rice:
- In a saucepan, heat the oil and add the onions with some salt and ground black pepper. Saute over medium-high heat for about five minutes or until the onions are translucent but not turning color. Add the mushrooms, green beans and lima beans and mix well.
- Let the vegetables cook about 5 minutes or until the beans are tender but not mushy.
- Add the cooked brown rice, dill, and the salad dressing. Mix everything well together. Turn off heat.
- Serve warm or cold.
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More vegan salads:
Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Beets
Chickpea Avocado Salad for Sandwiches and Wraps
This sounds awesome! I haven’t had anything with dill in a while and I’m craving it now. I usually eat at my desk, too, so I think you’ve convinced me to make it 🙂
Shannon, Dill’s one of my favorite herbs, but I tend to underuse it for some strange reason. 🙂 Hope you try this.
Your recipes always seem so healthy and delicous! I swear I already have five or six recipes of yours that are on my “to-do” list!
Mary, that’s nice to hear. I am definitely a health nut. 🙂
Love brown rice, but definitely haven’t experimented with dill during my cooking experiments – unless it’s in pickle form. 🙂 Thanks for the idea! That’s what I love about being a vegan – sooooo many food marriages that I never would have thought to couple in the past.
Vicki
Hi Vicki, yes, that’s the wonderful thing about being vegan, isn’t it– it inspires one’s creativity. 🙂
I love it … it’s like my “get-out-of-food-jail” lifetime membership card. 🙂
Nice, thanks Vaishali ,
My kids took over while I was making your dish for the second time, adding peppers, real sharp red onions and other hot stuff, I must admit, it tasted lovely !
Oh my, that sounds really tasty. Red onions would be so good in this. Glad you and family liked it! 🙂
Your blog is really great! I’m a vegan and I love indian and italian food, so this is just perfect for me!! Thank you so much for sharing all this!
Do you have more lunchbox recipies by the way? I find it so hard to diversify meals that have to fit into one box and still taste good when they have cooled down…
Hi Jeanne, Welcome! I do have a ton of lunchbox recipes but haven’t been very good about labeling them. You can try searching for “brown bag” on the blog– there’s a search engine on the home page and on the Recipe Index page. If you are looking for something in particular, feel free to write to me.