This is absolutely my favorite salad! My mom makes this rice salad very very often for me because it has all my favorite ingredients - rice & veggies! Unfortunately, I will admit that I never attempt to make this salad for myself because I am completely lacking in the rice cooking department. That's the only difficult part of this salad - making rice the hard way. I can honestly say I've never successfully made a batch of rice - I've tried, but I've never gotten it right!
I love this salad because the rice is soft and fluffy, the veggies are crunchy, and the dressing is perfectly tangy. What more could you want in a salad? I could probably, with little effort, eat this entire bowl! It's also beautiful with all the colored veggies - just like fireworks! Hence, firecracker salad :)
To start, make a batch of rice (from scratch - follow the box directions I suppose) - you want to end up with about 4 cups of cooked rice when you're done, chop 6 cups of veggies - anything you have laying around (but here's the secret - Trader Joe's 8 veggie Mix, it's right by the mirepoix) and you'll need about 1 cup of slivered almonds.
Once the rice is cooked and cooled slightly, toss in all the veggies and the almonds.
For the dressing:
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
a little olive oil (1-2 TB)
1 tsp ground cumin - this is what makes it great!
salt and pepper
1 heaping tsp of minced garlic
Whisk together and pour into the rice/veggie mix. This salad get better the longer it sits so make it a day ahead and keep it in the fridge!
Enjoy!
-Justine
