Whenever we cook rice we usually cook up double the amount we need, and freeze the rest. We use this rice in a few different ways. Usually it’s to make some sort of fried rice dish, because cooked and cooled rice really is the only type of rice to use if you want to make a decent fried rice. (It retains its texture and doesn’t go mushy like freshly cooked rice.) Cooked and cooled rice is also ideal for making hearty rice salads like this Asian-style rice salad.
We actually invented this rice salad just a couple of days ago. We both felt like a quick and satisfying lunch with Asian flavors, and we happened to have some leftover rice just sitting in the fridge. We couldn’t be bothered cooking, so we scoured our fridge and pantry for suitable ingredients to make an Asian-inspired rice salad.
One thing we didn’t have to worry about was seasonings (we’re always stocked up with Asian seasonings). But we hadn’t done a grocery shop for a few days, so we weren’t sure if we’d have a good range of fresh ingredients on hand.
Luckily we did have some ideal produce for Asian cooking: celery, red pepper, carrot, scallions, and a big knob of ginger root. All we needed was some sort of protein to balance out the flavors and improve the nutritional content. We chose one of our pantry staples — canned tuna — to fill that gap (cold shrimp, cold shredded chicken, or cashew nuts would have also worked well).
It only took us about five minutes to prepare the ingredients, which simply involved dicing the red pepper and celery, slicing the scallions and grating the carrot and ginger. Then we mixed those ingredients with the rice and tuna, and added a combination of seasonings we know work really well together — soy sauce, oyster sauce and toasted sesame oil.
The finished salad tasted surprisingly good, and really satisfied our craving for Asian flavors. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it too!
Asian-style Rice Salad
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side dish
2 1/2 tablespoons Chinese soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cups cooked cold long-grain rice (leftover rice is ideal)
1 carrot — grated
1/2 stick celery — finely chopped
1/2 red pepper — deseeded and diced
1 scallion — finely sliced on the diagonal
6 oz (180g) canned tuna in oil — drained and flaked
MIX together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, ginger and pepper in a small bowl. MIX together the rice, carrot, celery, red pepper, scallion and tuna in another bowl. TOSS the dressing with the rice mixture until well combined.
