Brown Rice Salad With Zucchini, Beans and Dried Cherries

Submitted by Rita1652

"Different! But so good! This dish is so complete it has the protien, carbs, fiber and bursting with flavor!"

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup zucchini, raw and diced
• 1⁄2 cup yellow pepper, diced
• 1⁄2 cup frozen green pea
• 1⁄2 cup red onion, diced
• 1⁄2 cup dried tart cherry, coarsely chopped (hydrated in 3 tablespoon hot water, Reserve the water for the dressing)
• 1 cup cannellini beans, rinsed
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 3 leaves fresh sage, chopped (1 inch leaves)
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped (4-5 inch sprig)
• 1 sprig fresh thyme, chopped (same amount as rosemary)
• salt and pepper

• Dressing

• 1⁄4 - 1⁄3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1⁄4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon prepared honey mustard

directions

1. Mix all of the salad ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Mix dressing ingredients in a blender using only 1/4 cup vinegar; taste to see if you want more, then proceed to add the rest of the vinegar.
3. I myself like the vinegar!
4. Add dressing to salad toss.
5. Chill for 1 hour, toss and serve.

Reviews

[sugarpea]

I expected to enjoy this recipe as I really like all the separate ingredients but I'm afraid I didn't care much for the combination. I used 1T each of fresh sage, rosemary and thyme. The "leaves" and "sprigs" listed weren't very specific so I guessed. I found the sage totally overwhelming so I would recommend using far less than 1T. I would use less than the full recipe of dressing next time. It, too, overwhelmed the other flavors and made the salad a bit runny. The only change I actually made to the recipe is that I didn't rehydrate the dried cherries. I just couldn't make myself turn wonderfully chewy $10/pound dried cherries into juicy cherries.