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O boy! Do I have the easiest most amazing saffron rice salad for you for dinner tonight!
I’m not going to lie… I made this vegan salad the other night as a way to use up what I had in my fridge and it turned out to be a gluten- and dairy-free masterpiece. My family loved it, but that doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. They’d eat a sock if it was covered in hummus.
Simple rice is tossed with creamy hummus then jazzed up with pecans, dried cherries, asparagus, saffron, scallions, cilantro and pretty lettuce leaves. If you can believe it, this recipe can be whipped up in less than 5 minutes is you make the rice ahead of time (say, the night before).
Easy, right? Told ya it was simple.
It’s great for a weeknight dinner and leftovers taste twice as good the next day.
O ya and toss in a bit of fresh lemon zest while you’re at it.
When in doubt, add lemon zest, sea salt and crushed red pepper flakes.
That, folks, is the secret to my easy ‘clean’ cooking.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup uncooked rice
- 1/2 tsp. saffron threads
- 4 Tbsp. Sabra Traditional Hummus
- 1 bundle fresh asparagus cut into 1/2 inch pieces and ends removed
- 2 scallions thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1/6 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup dried cherries
- 1/3 cup pecans
- 3 cups mixed salad greens
Instructions
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Cook rice according to package directions. Add in saffron threads 5 minutes into cooking.
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Remove from heat, add in asparagus pieces and mix well to combine. Cover and set aside for 10-15 minutes.
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In a large bowl, combine rice mixture with humus. Add scallions, cilantro, sea salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, dried cherries and pecans; gently toss to combine.
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Serve rice mixture amongst six plates atop a bed of fresh salad greens.
This salad looks scrumptious! Would be a welcome blessing to win the greens contest! Would help the health and the pocketbook! 🙂
Looks delicious!! Clever to use hummus in salad dressing ! Will leave out fruit and try with eggplant flavored hummus from Trader Joes for savory version.
Wow! Looks wonderful. I am so blessed that my favorite co-op carries all these wonderful ingredients in bulk. Healthy food does NOT have to be expensive.
love when items in fridge come together for the latest greatest masterpiece and it’s “just” salad. What creations can actually happen when we put our minds to it. So much fun. and so pretty too
Sounds amazing!
We’d love to win the greens from your Facebook giveaway. We eat salads every day and the one posted here looks so good!
Looks delicious! I’d love to try it and all your other salad recipes with winning the years supply of salad!
So enjoy reading through a list of ingredients and thinking, yes – I love that, and I love that, and I love that… Put them all together? Sure, why not? Deliciousness ensues. Sometimes my attempt to use up items in the fridge turns out surprisingly well, and then other times – well, I’m happy I’m the only one eating it.
On the menu for tonight with a few variations, but thanks for the hummus and rice idea! Can’t wait!
YUM! I love rice on salads! I think Chipotle got me started with that when I tried brown rice on a burrito bowl for the first time! 🙂 Would love to be entered into the Organic Greens giveaway on Facebook! Thanks, Amie! <3
xo.
Looks very delicious, easy & so healthy! A triple combo! Love the idea of adding the lemon zest & sea salt!
I Have Never Added Rice To My Salad But It Looks Great!
I’ll have to try this…looks so delicious, and I love saffron rice!
Amie this looks great. You always come up with such great meals!!!
That’s a great salad idea. You could add any grain to it but I love that you tossed the rice with hummus.
I like the idea of hummus + rice. My kids will mix hummus with whole wheat pasta and go to town on that, so I bet they would like this, too. Thanks for a great idea! We are veg, so I”m always trying to find ways to load my kids with protein (and not with processed meat substitutes). Also, please enter me for the FB salad contest! That would be a dream. 🙂
wow this looks delicious! I would never have thought to mix saffron rice and hummus in a salad! I eat salads 5-8 times/week I will try this one!!
I have a salad everyday; they’re so many options! Please enter me in the give a way.
YUM! Love that it is easy, quick, and healthy!
Supposed to be 5 star rating… 🙂
I just ran out of Saffron and will be running to get some today after seeing this recipe. Now that it’s finally getting a little warmer, there’s nothing better than meals made of hearty fresh salads. And I can’t imagine what I would do if I won a year’s worth of organic greens!