Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Confetti Rice Salad – Celebrating Your Improved Knife Skills

If you don’t do a lot of cooking, this confetti rice salad recipe might be the kind of thing you disregard, since it probably appears to require lots of slicing and dicing, which is true, but that’s a bad reason to not make it. That would be like not using real confetti for your celebration because it’s hard to clean up.

The truth of the matter is, with very little practice, all the veggies for this salad can probably be prepped in less than 15 minutes. In fact, this would be a great recipe to set your benchmark, and then see how you improve over time. Or, just use a food processor to chop everything. Either way, it’s worth the effort.

Obviously, you can adapt this recipe a thousand different ways, and I’m not just talking about which vegetables you toss in. If you want something creamier, you can add some mayo, or sour cream, or any combination of both. If you do, I’d cut back on the oil and vinegar a bit, but either way, make sure you hold back some of whatever you’re dressing this with.

Any dressing you add before it goes in the fridge will be full absorbed, and I think the texture is much nicer if we moisten the salad with more before service. That’s up to you also, but we don’t want our confetti rice as dry as the real stuff. Other than that, not much can go wrong, and I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 12 portions:
2 cups white long grain rice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups boiling water
- Place in 9 x 12 baking dish, cover, and cook rice for 35 minutes, then let rest 10 minutes, before fluffing.
1/2 cup green peas
1/2 cup sliced blanched green beans
1/2 cup finely diced blanched carrots
2 large red bell pepper, finely diced
1 large orange bell pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup red onions
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
cayenne to taste
3/4 cup sherry and/or rice vinegar (add 1/2 cup before fridge, and 1/4 cup after)
3/4 cup olive oil (add 1/2 cup before fridge, and 1/4 cup after)
1/4 cup freshly chopped dill
1/4 cup freshly chopped Italian parsley
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10 comments:

Unknown said...

I will definitely make this salad. If it tastes as good as it looks it will be a hit with my family who loves rice.

AnonBee said...

Would the measurements and cooking time be the same for brown rice?

Flylighter said...

This is the one.
This is the one I'm going to actually make.

Flylighter said...

This is the one.
This is the one I'm actually going to make.

CurlyMims said...

Thank you for sharing this recipe! I will be making this asap! I would like to try this with brown rice. How long would you cook the brown rice using the pilaf method?

Anonymous said...

Hey Chef John,

Sorry if this has been asked already elsewhere, but I'm just curious as to which brand of sherry vinegar you like best for dressings? I find they tend to vary pretty widely in sweetness, acidity, and flavour profile, depending on the style of sherry they were produced from.

P.s. this is a top-class template for rice salads, so thank you so much. I snuck some crisped-up butcher's chorizo and piquillo peppers in, which predictably delicious results.

robd19947@gmail.com said...

Chef John this looks very good I'm excited to try it this weekend. if I was to use brown rice for this procedure how long would you cook it?

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John,

If I were to substitute Jasmine rice in this, would the cooking process be the same?

Thanks

Unknown said...

just tried this and it was a great change from the same old,same old salads

Unknown said...

Thank you again! Just made this and it's wonderful. The combination of the rice and fresh veggies - mmmmmm. Also the Pilaf method for cooking the rice is terrific. Only sad thing, my wife said I have to throw our your recipe for "Perfect White Rice" and only do this method. Sad day but I'll slip in on her....