I began writing this red rice, quinoa and pumpkin salad post about two weeks ago, when it felt as though the temperature every day for the past YEAR in Perth had been enough to cause you to melt instantly into a puddle of sweat and heat-induced delirium should you dare step outside your air-conditioned house/office/shopping centre (in fact I think it had been that hot for only a couple of weeks, but still. Enough already).
For now, the first week of Autumn has brought relatively cool relief, if you deem 31˚C as brisk as we have been. For all you Northern Hemispherians suffering through seemingly endless winter, I say to you this: the grass is always greener (except when it’s dehydrated, brown and crispy).
Anyway, the six-plus months a year of ‘salad weather’ we have means a lot of what we eat is minimally cooked because it’s too hot to stand in the kitchen for hours. And the practicalities of life with a small child means the dishes which get repeated re-runs in our house are the ones which can a) be mostly pre-prepared, kept in the fridge and finished off 5 minutes before dinner, and b) be plated with minimal variations to suit both the adventurous and less-adventurous (read: chilli-loving and chilli-phobic) members of the family.
This salad hits all the right notes – I’ve made it several times with slight adjustments and every time it’s been a winner. It’s bright thanks to the apricots and feta, colourful, filling and can be doctored with extra spice. The ingredient list is long, yes, but once you’ve cooked the grains and pumpkin it’s just an assembly job when you’re ready to serve. I wasn’t sure the small person would like it but the photos don’t lie (side note: hungry little people and food photography may not be the best of friends. Or maybe they are exactly the kind of friends who make a lovely picture. You decide).
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Red Rice, Quinoa and Pumpkin Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup white quinoa rinsed and drained
- 1 cup red rice rinsed and drained
- 2 lb pumpkin peeled and cut into 3cm (1 inch) pieces; I used Kent pumpkin, butternut or another dense-fleshed variety would work too
- ¼ cup olive oil (or almond, macadamia, avocado oil – whatever tastes good to you
- 3 whole limes juiced
- 1/2 whole orange zested and juiced
- 1 small garlic clove minced
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ cup dried apricots diced into small pieces
- ½ cup shelled pistachio nuts toasted and roughly chopped
- 4 scallions sliced spring onions (white and light green parts)
- 1/2 bunch mint leaves picked, sadly omitted from my photos
- 4 oz Persian feta crumbled
- 1 red chili finely chopped (optional)
- Extra lime wedges optional
Instructions
- Set your oven to 100˚C/212˚F (steam only). Mix the rice with 1 ½ cups (375ml) water and put in the oven for 25 minutes.
- While the rice starts cooking, mix the quinoa with 1 cup (250ml) water. Add it to the oven once the rice has been in for 10 minutes (ie 25 minutes total cooking for the rice, 15 minutes total for the quinoa). When the grains are done, remove from oven and fluff with a fork, then leave to cool.
- Change your oven setting to 200ËšC/400ËšF, combination steam setting (if your oven has variable steam levels, choose 80%). Put the cubed pumpkin in and cook for about 20 minutes until tender and browned on the edges. Remove from oven and cool slightly.
- While the pumpkin is cooking, mix the oil, citrus juices and zest, garlic, salt and pepper to make a dressing. Taste and adjust seasoning – if your fruits aren’t particularly juicy you may need a little more lime or orange. The dressing should be a bit sharp and a bit oversalted as it’ll get soaked up by the grains pretty quickly.
- Once the rice and quinoa have cooled (you want them lukewarm), mix them in a large bowl with the dressing, apricots, pistachios, spring onions, feta, mint and half the chilli (if using). Gently toss the warm pumpkin through and, if you can, leave the salad to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving so the dressing absorbs into the grains. Serve with more chilli and lime wedges.
Notes
- Makes 4-6 big dinner serves, or 8-10 ‘side salad’ serves
- This is hearty enough to qualify as a meat-free dinner but would be equally good as a side with lamb or chicken. If you are like my husband you’d probably also prefer the addition of a little fried bacon into the mix.
- I bought my red rice from an Asian supermarket, it was labelled ‘Cargo Red Rice’. It would be lovely made with brown rice instead of the red if you can’t find it.
- I’ve made the salad without quinoa (just double the rice quantity), and I’ve served it both warm and cold. Leftovers keep for 3 or 4 days in the fridge, although the mint won’t look as green and the citrus flavours in the dressing become a bit muted over time.
Tried this yesterday with a few variations. I don’t like quinoa so I used a mix of white and red rice from Camargue instead.
I also replaced the feta with strips of grilled chicken. And I omitted the spring onions since I had none at hand.
The end result was very tasty! I’ll try it again with spring onions though, as I think they would add both colour and flavour.
For the pumpkin I used the last of our garden’s long musked squash.