Vegetable garden rice salad, our perfect recipe

You surely know thevegetable garden rice salad: it peeps out in all summer barbecues, it is the easy and abundant solution for many families from July to September, it is the favorite lunch to take to the office or packed in the hot weather. There are very famous condiments ready to make it, to be poured on cooked rice, and which include mushrooms, chopped peppers, onions, gherkins. Today we give it an edge, keeping the key elements to call it that (only vegetables) but giving it an edge: here is ours perfect recipe.

Sometimes it takes very little to change and see from another point of view what you have always had under your eyes … or on your plate, in this case. Between opening a jar of ready-made condiment and instead following our procedure, the difference is very little in practice, but the satisfaction is exponentially greater!

Vegetable garden rice salad

Rice for salads 320 g, copper tomatoes 150 g, lemons, zest and juice of 1, salted capers 2 large spoons, radishes 4-5, courgettes 3, boiled beets 1, red onions 1 large, light extra virgin olive oil 45 g, salt and white pepper to taste, fresh basil 20 leaves

First, prepare an emulsion and then season your rice. In a small bowl, mix the oil, the lemon juice, the zest of the middle (but grate it all, before squeezing it!), A few basil leaves into small pieces, the pepper. Leave the sauce to rest for an hour and, in the meantime, proceed with the rest. Chop the onion and leave it to soak in a little fresh water. Slice the radishes with a mandolin to obtain thin slices, cut the beetroot into small cubes, rinse the capers thoroughly to remove the salt from which they are preserved. Cut the cherry tomatoes eliminating the internal seeds. For the courgettes, do this: take only the outer green part, thus eliminating the core with the seeds, and cut the pulp into thin strips; sprinkle them with a little salt and set aside for a few minutes. Now that you have all the elements ready, boil the rice in lightly salted water to drain it al dente and rinse it under cold running water. Season the rice with radishes, capers, cherry tomatoes, drained onion, beetroot, rinsed and dabbed courgettes well. Complete with the previously prepared emulsion, the peel kept aside and the last basil leaves. Stir to mix all the ingredients and keep cool. For an extra touch, you can serve the salad by adding a handful of toasted sliced ​​almonds at the last second.

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