Here's a beautiful rice salad recipe from chef Yotam Ottolenghi. It brings together brown rice and quinoa with toasted pistachios, dried apricots, caramelized onions, and arugula, all tossed in a zesty citrus dressing. This is a great dinner party recipe because you can do all the prep ahead and the flavors and textures are incredible.
A Great Dinner Party Side Dish
I love a dinner party dish that wows the crowd without stressing out the cook, and this recipe fits the bill perfectly. You can do all the prep ahead, and it's a beautiful dish to set out on the table, with all the colors of the apricots, pistachios, and arugula dotting the grains.
When I serve this, I always get lots of requests for the recipe—it's truly a special dish to have in your cooking repertoire.
Ingredients
- Rice: Ottolenghi's recipe calls for Camargue Red Rice which is a colorful French variety that has a lovely nutty flavor. It's wonderful but not readily available at most local supermarkets. Luckily Brown Rice is a great substitute!
- Quinoa: healthy and high in protein, quinoa also brings its lovely fluffy texture to this rice salad.
- White Onion: Sliced and sautéed until sweet and tender
- Olive oil: A substantial amount is used to cook the onion and to dress the salad, so choose a good quality extra virgin olive oil
- Orange zest and juice: for the citrus dressing
- Lemon Juice: fresh is best
- Garlic: minced or put through a garlic press
- Scallions: thinly sliced
- Toasted Pistachios: for convenience, look for pistachios that are shelled and toasted or roasted.
- Dried Apricots: Although I often buy unsulphured apricots to snack on, I prefer the color and flavor of conventional bright orange apricots for this dish
- Arugula: roughly chopped
How To Make Ottolenghi's Rice Salad
This is an overview of the recipe - for full details and directions, scroll down the the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
There are several steps to this recipe but if you follow my suggested order of operations, you can get everything done in about an hour.
- Cook and Then Cool The Grains: Cook the rice and quinoa in two separate pots. When done, drain and spread out on two rimmed baking sheet expedite cooling and avoid overcooking the grains.
- Cook the Onion: While the grains are simmering, slice and sauté the white onion in olive oil until it softens and starts to brown.
- Prep the rest of the ingredients: Place everything in a large bowl. No need to whisk up a dressing. Simply add the orange zest and juice, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil to the bowl, along with the cooled rice and quinoa, sautéed onion, diced apricots, toasted pistachios, scallions, arugula, salt and pepper.
- Toss to combine: Mix the rice salad and then taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve
Serving Suggestions
This rice salad is best served at room temperature. The rice will be chewy, the quinoa fluffy, the nuts crunchy, and all the flavors will be at their most vibrant.
I've served this dish year round and on many different occasions - in the spring and summer with grilled swordfish steaks or kebabs, in the fall and winter with broiled salmon or roasted chicken. I also love making this as part of a brunch buffet along with a green salad and chicken salad. It's also a great side dish for Thanksgiving.
Ottolenghi's Original Rice Salad Recipe
In case you're looking for the original Ottolenghi recipe, it's from his very first cookbook, Ottolenghi The Cookbook and the recipe is called "Camargue red rice and quinoa with orange and pistachios."
Over the many years that I've been making this wonderful rice salad, I've made minor changes to the original recipe to emphasize certain ingredients that I love. I increased the amount of apricots from ¼ cup to ½ cup; I increased the pistachios from ½ cup to ¾ cup; and I upped the amount of arugula from 1 ½ ounces to 2 ounces and the scallions from 4-6. Also, for convenience I often substitute brown rice for Camargue Red Rice. Otherwise the recipe is the same.
This beautiful, healthy, vegetarian rice salad recipe from Ottolenghi is really something special. If you make this, I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think!
PrintRecipe
Ottolenghi's Rice Salad Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6-8 servings
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A beautiful rice salad with nuts, fruit and citrus. This makes a great side dish for brunches and dinner parties because you can do all the prep ahead of time and the textures and flavors are incredible.
Minimally adapted from a recipe in Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw brown rice or Camargue red rice (see notes)
- 1 cup raw quinoa
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 medium white onion, halved and sliced
- Grated zest and juice of one orange
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 medium garlic clove, finely minced or put through a garlic press
- 1 bunch (about 6) green onions (scallions), thinly sliced crosswise
- ¾ cup dried apricots cut into small dice
- ½ cup toasted or roasted pistachios, roughly chopped (see notes)
- 2 big handfuls (about 2 ounces) baby arugula (rocket), roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt or more, to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or more, to taste
Instructions
- In two separate saucepans cook the rice and quinoa in salted water following the package directions. Check for doneness a few minutes early to ensure the grains are tender but still have some bite. Drain them in a mesh colander and spread them out on two separate rimmed baking sheets so they cool quickly.
- While the grains are simmering, sauté the onion in 4 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat until golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the orange zest and juice, lemon juice, remaining 6 tablespoons olive oil and garlic with the rest of the ingredients: cooled rice and quinoa, sautéed onion, scallions, diced apricots, toasted pistachios, arugula, salt and pepper. Toss to mix, then taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and pepper if needed.
- Transfer rice salad to a platter and serve at room temperature.
Notes
- Rice: While Ottolenghi's original recipe calls for Camargue Red Rice (a colorful variety with a nutty flavor), a good quality brown rice is a perfect substitute that yields a delicious result.
- Pistachios: To toast raw pistachios, place them in a heavy skillet over medium high heat and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 to 7 minutes. If you want to skip the step of toasting raw pistachios, look for roasted pistachios at the grocery store or order them online.
- Nutrition Disclaimer: We do our best to provide accurate nutrition values using an online nutrition calculator however our nutrition information should only be used as an approximation.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Simmer
Jenna
This is the best rice salad. I've been making it for years and I'm excited to try it with brown rice. Thanks so much for reminding me how much I love this recipe. I can't wait to try your version!