Brown Rice Salad with Tomato and Kale

I came up with this recipe in an effort to find something new for the lunchboxes.  If you have children who are gluten and/or and diary free it's easy to run out of ideas or resort to foods that are not very nutritious.  My girls and I love this salad and it's super healthy too.  The best thing is that you can make it ahead and it's fine in the fridge for a few days, probably longer but ours never lasts that long.  The flavour actually improves when it sits for awhile.

What you will need:

• 1 cup of brown rice, soaked for a minimum of seven hours, drained and patted dry.
• 1/4 cup of sundried tomatoes, chopped finely
• 1 tbsp baby capers, drained
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced or finely chopped
• Kale, roughly chopped - about four good handfuls

What you need to do:

1.  Bring 1 3/4 cups of water to the boil and then add the rice.  Reduce to a very low simmer, cover and allow to cook for 45 to 50 minutes.  When done, all the water will be absorbed and rice should be tender.  Leave to sit in the pot.

2.  In a small pan, heat some olive oil over a low heat and gently cook the garlic.  Add the kale and fry gently.  Add a dash of water, cover and allow to steam until tender.

3.  Mix the rice with a fork and add the chopped sundried tomatoes, capers and the cooked kale and all the oil from the pan.  Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and mix well.

4.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and add more oil or balsamic to taste if needed. 

Notes:

There are infinite variations for this recipe.  For a higher protein meal, add toasted seeds or nuts.  You could change the dressing to anything that you like, lemon juice and olive oil, soy sauce and sesame oil with chopped coriander.  Chopped herbs could be added such as parsley or mint.  Any combination of raw or cooked vegetables can be added for variety.  You could also use quinoa instead of brown rice, or use a combination of both.

I actually made the same recipe as above but added it to freshly cooked gluten free spaghetti for a delicious pasta dinner.