Super Salad with Brown Rice and Avocado Dressing
This is one super sized salad. It's really does have everything you need to fuel your body with the right ingredients to provide you with long lasting energy and vitality. The original version of this salad actually had chickpeas fried and a Moroccan spice instead of hazelnuts, however I love chickpeas, but they don't love me, so hence the reason for my modification. But by all means feel free to substitute hazelnuts for chickpeas or even black beans or lentils would work really well. This is a really versatile salad, so use what's in your garden and mix and match ingredients to suit your taste.
INGREDIENTS
Salad
1 cup long brown rice, rinsed and drained
olive oil
1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
300 gram bag broccolini, blanched
¼ cup pistachios, roughly chopped
assortment of any of the following vegetables: radishes, fennel, zucchini, cucumber, carrots, snow peas, tomatoes or what ever you have growing!
Green goddess dressing
1 cup thick plain yoghurt
1/2 cup sour cream
flesh 1 avocado
¼ cup packed basil leaves
¾ teaspoon dried tarragon
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
sea salt and ground pepper
METHOD
Cook the brown rice in boiling salted water for about 40 minutes or until cooked. The rice should still have a chewy texture. Drain well and set aside to cool.
Dressing: Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
To serve: Spread half of the dressing on one side of a platter. Spoon the rice over the other half and drizzle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
Arrange all the vegetables over the top then scatter over the hazelnuts and pistachios. Drizzle everything with olive oil, salt and pepper. Serves 4-6 depending on how many vegetables you use.