Brown Rice Citrus Salad {Vegan & Gluten-Free}

This easy brown rice citrus salad offers a pleasing blend of flavors and textures - a great side dish, but hearty enough for a meal!

My daughter has been fighting a cold and asked me to make her something “healthy” for dinner. This usually means a big green salad but we needed to go grocery shopping. We were out of fresh greens. What to do, what to do…

I took a quick inventory of our kitchen. A nearly overripe pineapple sat on the counter. One lone orange rested in the fruit bowl. Half a cucumber was dying a slow death in the vegetable crisper - but fortunately it was accompanied by another with a little more life left in it. What could I do with these ingredients?

I decided to make a grain salad. I opted for short grain brown rice, but quinoa or another type of grain could also work.

Ingredients

If I followed my own advice and had some cooked grains on hand, this brown rice citrus salad could have been ready in minutes. I had to wait for the rice to cook, but that gave me time to chop the fruit and veggies. I ultimately decided to combine:

• brown rice
• orange
• pineapple
• cucumber
• onion
• garbanzo beans
• cashews
• teriyaki sauce

Grain salads are great. They make a hearty meal and it’s easy to mix and match different ingredients. I thought teriyaki sauce would enhance the citrus flavors in this combo, but I encourage you experiment with what you have!

📖 Recipe

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Brown Rice Citrus Salad

This easy vegan and gluten-free recipe offers a pleasing blend of flavors and textures - a great side dish, but hearty enough for a meal!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 4

Author Veggie Primer

Ingredients

• 1 cup short grain brown rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 large orange peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks
• 2 cups fresh 1 inch pineapple chunks
• 1 large cucumber peeled, seeded and chopped into ½ inch chunks
• ½ large red onion diced
• 1 15.5 oz can low sodium garbanzo beans chickpeas, drained
• 1 cup raw cashews
• ¼ cup Teriyaki Sauce

Instructions

• Combine rice and water in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. (Or cook rice in a rice cooker - follow manufacturer’s instructions - and skip to step 4.)
• Reduce heat and simmer with cover vented for 45 minutes.
• Remove from heat, cover fully and allow cooked rice to sit for 10 minutes.
• While rice is cooking, prep orange, pineapple, cucumber and onion.
• Combine orange, pineapple, cucumber, onion, chickpeas and cashews in a large mixing bowl and stir in Teriyaki Sauce.
• Serve immediately or refrigerate for later (1-2 days) - best served at room temperature.

 Note: I do not include nutrition information with my recipes because I subscribe to the theories presented in the book Whole and believe we should focus on eating a variety of whole foods instead of counting calories or keeping track of individual nutrients.