Rice salad with oak leaf lettuce and roasted walnuts
This salad is prepared with four people in mind since we are going to use 400g of rice. But what you have to consider is that if there are only four of you, this should be the only dish because after eating it, you will feel really satisfied thanks to the presence of the rice and nuts.
If there are more than four eating, this is the perfect accompaniment for your starters and main courses. White rice is always a magnificent alternative and even more so, in this dish which is enriched with spinach, lettuce and walnuts. So now, let’s look at how to prepare it:
Ingredients
- 400g rice (you can also also use wholegrain rice)
- 100g walnuts
- 300g fresh spinach
- 2 lettuces (approx 400g)
- 2 cloves of garlic, one of them for when you are cooking the rice and the other to enchance the flavour of the spinach when you sauté it with the rice. In both cases, try to slice the garlic finely
- 2 tablesps extra virgin olive oil to cook the rice
- 2 tablesps extra virgin olive oil to sauté the spinach
- 2 tablesps Modena vinegar reduced
- Extra virgin olive oil to dress the salad
Preparation
- Shell the walnuts (they are tastier if they are fresh). Once shelled, roast them in a frying pan. When they are golden, set them aside.
- Now it’s time to cook the rice. Do so in a saucepan with a lot of water. For added taste, use garlic, salt and a generous dash of extra virgin olive oil. Twenty minutes cooking time is more than suffic ient. Once drained, set the rice aside.
- While the rice is cooking, boíl the spinach but only for two minutes. After, put the spinach with garlic and extra virgin olive oil in another frying pan and sauté on a low heat. If you want, you can add pine nuts or raisins.
Now , we are going to serve it. An attractive way of presenting the rice is to use small rectangular or square glasses as a a mould. In that way, you can make four small mounds. Put the walnuts on top.
Arrange the lettuce leaves and the spinach around the rice. All you need to do now is dress it with olive oil, salt and the Modena vinegar.
And incidentally, now that we’re preparing a tasty salad, don’t forget to dress it with the best olive oil in the world or, at least, what you consider to be the best. Your guests will be eternally grateful because in that way, you are combining the nuts with the flavours of local produce.
This salad is to be eaten warm since the rice tastes much better. However, we know several people who serve it very cold in very hot weather.
As you have seen, this salad is extremely nutritious as well as being very easy to prepare. It can be made in summer and in winter, as a dish in its own right or served with another. It’s impossible to say anything bad about it.