Today is drizzly and overcast, a day clearly in need of an injection of sunshine in the form of juicy, colourful tomatoes!
We just did a big weekly shop and the store had in these beautiful Kentish orange tomatoes called “Orange Rapture”. You may have noticed that I am a total logophile, in other words, I love words. I especially love really dramatic words, and love when small things are aggrandized beyond their humble stature by vocabulary. So when someone calls a tomato “Rapture” it is sure to get my attention.
But what to do with the rapturous tomatoes? I scrounged through the cupboards and found that I had a tiny bit of wild rice left lurking in the dark recesses behind the oats, just enough for a salad.
Perfect!
Wild rice is not actually rice at all but a semi-aquatic grass indigenous to the Northern regions of Canada! I think I would feel obliged to eat it as it’s Canadian, even if I didn’t like it, but fortunately I love it! It’s got a beautiful slightly nutty flavour and chewy texture, is a bit higher in protein than most other whole grains, and is especially high in antioxidants. And it’s a really lovely addition to salad giving it a bit of texture and whole grain goodness to keep you full.
Another interesting thing, did you know that you can get wild rice flour? I did not know this. It shouldn’t really surprise me as you can actually make flour from any grain as well as from beans, nuts, and seeds, but I just hadn’t considered it I suppose. I can’t wait to get my hands on some now though and see what I can come up with!
For my salad I added some chickpeas for a little extra protein and texture, and some fresh basil because… really…fresh basil is just glorious and especially so when combined with tomatoes. As for a dressing I kept it very simple. With all of the vibrant flavours already there, I didn’t really feel like it needed much, so I just used a squeeze of lemon, a bit of oil and some seasoning. Don’t skip the oil! Though it may sound like a healthy thing to do, if you consume fresh veg with a bit of oil it helps with the absorption of many of the nutrients in your veggies. This is especially important with lycopene and beta-carotene, two nutrients that are rich in tomatoes but which definitely need the oil to make them available to your body.
Tomato chickpea and wild rice salad; rapturous tomatoes and Canadian whole grains, a little sunshine on a grey day!
- 50g wild rice
- 200g cooked chickpeas
- 5 cherry tomatoes,halved, orange or yellow if available
- 1 big vine tomato, cut into thin wedges
- A small handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 tsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Bring a small pot of water to the boil, add the wild rice, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer and leave to cook for about 25-30 min, until the rice is tender. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl or serving dish, toss together the wild rice, chickpeas,tomatoes and basil.
- Mix together the oil, lemon juice and seasoning in a small jug, and pour over the salad. Toss again to evenly coat everything with the dressing. Season to taste.