This bean and brown rice salad goes perfect with fresh lettuce leaves to eat as a “wrap” sandwich. It can be served as a side to a meal, or can be added to greens for a delicious variation to your salads. Garnish with toasted pine nuts, or any other seed or nut that you enjoy, along with a few slices of avocado. Salad can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- 2 cups cooked long grain brown rice
- 1 1/2 cups cooked adzuki beans
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 2 green onions, sliced into rounds
- small handful of fresh dill, finely chopped
- butterhead lettuce
- toasted pine nuts
- 1 small avocado
Dressing:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1.5 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons fresh honey
- 1 teaspoon Herbamare
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
Place all ingredients for the salad into a large bowl. Set aside.
For the dressing, place all ingredients into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well. Pour dressing over salad and toss together. Serve over lettuce leaves and garnish with toasted pine nuts and avocado slices if desired.
Hints to simplify – 1. cook ahead the rice in a rice cooker and have on hand. Check out the Rice Pudding recipe to use up any left over cooked rice. 2. Buy a can of the adzuki beans, drain and rinse before putting into the recipe.
I used a cooked sweet potato instead of carrots, however, make sure the sweet potato is not overcooked. Recipe adapted from nourishingmeals.com
Why eat adzuki beans? Adzuki beans are a good source of a variety of minerals like iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc and folic acid (Source: wikipedia.org).