Brown Rice Salad with Avocado & Tomato
This Brown Rice Salad is healthy and delicious. With brown rice, tomatoes, avocado, and a creamy dressing, this salad is perfect for summer.
Servings: 5
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Ingredients
For the rice and veggies:
- 5 cups brown rice, cooked (in my rice cooker, 3 cups water and 1 ½ cups dry brown rice makes 5 cups cooked brown rice)
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ⅛ tsp pepper
- 8 oz cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
For the dressing:
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- ½ sea salt
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Everything else:
- 1 14 oz can chickpeas, drained
- 1 avocado, diced to ½ to ¾ inch pieces
- 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced
Instructions
Cook the rice
- Get the brown rice cooking before you do anything else. It will be done cooking by the time you've prepared all the other meal elements. I use my rice cooker, but cook your rice using whatever your preferred method is.
Cook the onion and garlic
- In a large skillet add 2 Tbsp olive oil, and cook the garlic, onion, and ½ tsp sea salt over medium heat for 3 minutes. The onion will start to sizzle.
- Now turn the heat down to medium low, and cook the onion for another 5 minutes. While the onion cooks, you can halve your tomatoes.
Add the tomatoes
- Now add your tomatoes, 1/8 tsp pepper, the remaining ½ tsp sea salt, and the remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil to the skillet with the onion/garlic mixture. Turn the heat back up to medium, and cook the tomatoes for 3 minutes, until they begin to release their juices.
- Turn the heat down to low, and let the tomatoes, onion, and garlic cook for an additional 10-12 minutes, until the tomatoes have mostly broken down, but have still retained a bit of shape.
Make the dressing
- While the tomatoes cook, make the dressing. Simply whisk all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Whisk until the dressing emulsifies. All the ingredients will come together and make a thick liquid.
Put it all together
- In a large mixing bowl, add the cooked brown rice and drained chickpeas.
- Carefully spoon all of the onion/garlic/tomato mixture over the rice. Be sure to get all the tomato juice in there too. Use a spatula to fold the ingredients into the rice.
- Now pour all of the dressing over the top of the brown rice salad, and fold the dressing in. The brown rice will soak it up.
- Once the dressing is incorporated, fold in the avocado and the parsley.
Serve and Enjoy
- Taste the salad, add a little bit of salt if desired, and serve.
- This brown rice salad it a meal by itself. It also pairs well with my crispy baked tofu and a salad like this one.
Notes
This brown rice salad is vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free.