Brown Rice Salad with Soy Sauce Dressing

Serves 5 or so people as a side salad or 3-4 people as a main meal.

1. Cook the brown rice and drain well. Spread the rice out on a tray and set aside to dry out a little. It needs to be dry enough that the grains become a bit sticky and start to stick to each other.

2. Prepare the rest of the ingredients while waiting for the rice to dry.

3. Transfer rice, spring onions, capsicum, sultanas, celery and parsley to a bowl and mix well.

4. Just before serving, add remaining ingredients (cashews, sunflower seeds and dressing).

To make the dressing, combine sunflower oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and salt and pepper in a jar. Shake to combine. Dressing can be kept in the fridge for several days, but keep it in the jar because it’ll need to be shaken again before each use.

I find the dressing doesn’t need any salt, unless you’re using salt-reduced soy sauce, but it’s really down to personal taste.

You can make the salad ahead of time if you want. Just leave out step 4 until right before serving. It’s actually better to make it ahead of time—it lets the rice soak up more flavour.