Curried Rice Salad

This is one of the recipes I made this past weekend on one of my power cooks.   It was a productive weekend that resulted in healthy desserts, guacamole, soups, pakoras and this wonderful rice salad, in my fridge, ready to eat.  For a gal like me, spending hours in the kitchen is time well spent and enjoyed!  I realize not everyone enjoys cooking or have the time to spend hours in the kitchen:  this salad will take minutes(not counting cooking the rice) to make and you'll have this in your fridge ready for easy lunches or side dish to your meals.

I've been making this salad regularly for the past two years, and I still relish at the flavour of this dish.  I make a large batch and place in two-cup containers for easy lunches.  Mornings for most of us are already hectic enough.  Being able to go in the fridge and grab a couple of containers that contain my healthy breakfast and lunch to bring to work is worth so much to me!  I've never frozen this salad as peppers would get soft, but it lasts a good week in the fridge.  If using meat instead of almonds, which I've never tried, would shorten this time for sure.

curried rice salad

6 cups brown rice, cooked (2 cups uncooked)
1 cup roasted almonds, chopped (bake whole raw almonds at 350 degree oven on cookie sheet for 15 minutes)
1 cup celery, diced
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1/2 red onion, diced finely
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. In a large bowl, combine rice, almonds, celery, peppers, onion and cilantro.
2. In smaller bowl, mix lemon juice, olive oil, curry powder, salt and pepper together.
3. Pour dressing into salad mixture and stir well.
4. Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste(add more curry powder, salt, etc.)

Yield: 10 cups.  If this is too large an amount, especially when trying it out for the first time, just cut the ingredients in half!

Note: For nut allergies, try using 2 cups of cooked diced chicken instead of the almonds.

Potato Salad

Potato salad has always been one of my favourites.  This hearty salad is so versatile, you can't go wrong as long as you use certain key ingredients.  Here is the salad I put together for the side dish to tonight's dinner.  This salad received a colour and flavour boost as I happened to have 3 types of potatoes: sweet potatoes, red-skinned and white-skinned potatoes.  Just use what you've got in the fridge!

potato salad
6 cups potatoes, chopped 
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup celery, diced
1/4 cup red onion, chopped 
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
3 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place potatoes in a 9 X 14 casserole dish and add broth, olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Bake in oven for 45 minutes, stirring once after 20 minutes.
4. Allow potatoes to cool.
5. Place cooled potatoes in a bowl and toss with all other ingredients except mayonnaise.
6. Add the mayo and mix well.
7. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

     Makes 4 servings