Rice Salad with Olives and Pine Nuts

The smartest food bloggers rave about the recipes they post in the first paragraph so you're positively dying to click ahead and read the rest. Me? I kind of do that, but I also can't help being a truth-teller. So yesterday, I was honest when I said that I loved the Franny's Toasted Almond Gelato recipe I made, but I also said it tasted--just very slightly--like snot. Now I'm here to tell you about a rice salad that I made from Staffmeals (quickly becoming one of my most-used cookbooks) that I enjoyed, but not fully, mostly because of how I cooked the rice.

The concept of cooking a grain or a starch and flavoring it like a salad isn't new to me. See my past experiences with quinoa, wheatberries, farro. Here, the star of the show is rice and you have to cook it right so it's fluffy and firm and can hold up to the dressing. For some reason, despite following the recipe directions, my rice--long grain rice--came out super sticky and almost mushy.

Theory: I had the heat too high during the cooking process and overdid it. At this point, I had a friend coming over for dinner and didn't have time--or the energy, really--to cook another batch of rice, so I used it despite the mushy/sticky qualities. Step one: add a dressing made with olive oil and vinegar.

Step two: add toasted pine nuts.

Then lots of good stuff: olives, scallions, red pepper, parsley, and dill.

Stir that all in and you've got rice salad.

I have a feeling, if I'd cooked the rice a little more carefully, this could've become a regular fixture at my dinner table or, more probably, at picnics or outdoor events. As it was, though, it had a gloppy quality that hopefully bothered me more than it did our dinner guests. This is a great base for any protein you want to serve; in this case, it was spatchcocked chicken.

Hey, I told you at the top of this post, I'm a truth teller. So if you're not inspired to make this, I have no one to blame but myself. But something tells me you will make this because the only thing I didn't like about it was the mushy rice which was totally my fault. Your ultimate conclusion should probably be: "This recipe is great, but this guy's a putz."

Recipe: Rice Salad with Olives and Pine Nuts

Summary: From Staffmeals.

Ingredients

• 2 cups long-grain rice
• 4 cups water
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 cup pine nuts, toasted (pour 'em into a dry skillet and flip around on medium heat until they're fragrant and golden)
• 1/2 cup black olives, preferably Kalamata or other pungent but not oil-cured olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
• 1 bunch scallions, white and green parts, trimmed and very thinly sliced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh dill leaves
• Coarse (kosher) salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Place the rice and water in a small, heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the rice is tender and the water is fully absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, uncover, and let the rice cool for 20 minutes; it should still be a little warm. Transfer the rice to a large bowl.
2. Place the oil and vinegar in a small bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine. Add the dressing to the rice and toss to mix; the still-warm rice will absorb some of the dressing. Add the pine nuts, olives, scallions, bell pepper, parsley, dill, salt, and pepper and toss well to mix. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then serve at room temperature.

Preparation time: 25 minute(s)

Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 6