Yogurtsoda Gratuitous food and travel.

The idea of a rice “salad” used to seem funny to me. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I grew up eating mounds of basmati rice as a vehicle for kababs and khoreshes. Salad was salad and rice was rice.

Still, I decided to give this recipe a go because it seemed so easy and it looked like it would make good leftovers. Both turned out to be true, and now, rice salad is nothing to laugh about. Adapted from a Food and Wine recipe, I can’t attest to its authenticity. Do Sicilians really eat rice salad? I’m only asking because I’ve seen Persian rice salad recipes floating around I can already picture hordes of little Iranian old ladies raising hell at the thought.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups rice
1/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced in half
1 rib celery, thinly sliced
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 egg, hard-boiled, peeled, and coarsely chopped.
2 tablespoons capers
1 can tuna, drained
1 small tin anchovy fillets, drained and minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in the rice and boil until just done, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain. Rinse with cold water and drain thoroughly. Put the rice in a large glass bowl.

2. Stir the olives, celery, egg, onion, capers, tuna, and anchovies into the rice. Toss the rice salad with the oil, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, and basil.