Nutty Brown Rice salad with Haloumi Cheese and Herbs

 A salad made with Brown Rice, nuts and herbs makes a very healthy light meal or side dish. This salad must stand for 3 hours. As a side dish, this would be delicious with roasted chicken or fish.

• Serves: 6
• Difficulty: medium
• Prep time:
• Cooking time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients

150 ml olive oil 

6 baby leeks, thinly sliced, rinsed and patted dry 

500 ml (2 cups) cooked Spekko Saman Brown Rice 

2 red peppers, roasted and cut into strips (see below) 

250 ml (1 cup) sultanas 

250 ml (1 cup) coarsely chopped Italian parsley, plus extra for garnishing 

250 ml (1 cup) roasted cashew nuts 

125 ml (½ cup) roasted pine nuts (optional) 

4-6 spring onions with leaves, chopped 

3 cloves of garlic, crushed 

juice of 1 lemon 

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 

200 g haloumi cheese, cubed 

extra chopped parsley to garnish 

Method

1. Heat 30 ml of the oil in a frying pan and fry leeks in batches until golden and crispy. Spoon out and drain on paper towel.
2. Stir leeks intoSpekkoSaman Brown Rice with 50 ml of the oil. Add rest of the ingredients, except haloumi and extra parsley. Toss through, season to taste and refrigerate for 3 hours.  
3. Just before serving, heat some of remaining oil and fry haloumi until golden brown. Drain on paper towel and repeat with remaining oil and cheese.
4. Scatter haloumi over salad and add extra parsley. Season to taste with salt, pepper and more lemon juice if preferred. As
 From the Spekko kitchen 
1. Roasted peppers are available from most delis, but you can easily make your own. Preheat and oven to 200 °C and brush peppers with oil. Roast for 10-15 minutes or until the skins begin to blister and the peppers are cooked. Place in a plastic bag and allow to cool. Remove skin and use as above.
2. Brown rice salad with apricots and nuts: Use 500 ml cookedSpekko Saman Brown Rice as above, but omit leeks and haloumi. Add 1-2 slices feta cheese, broken into chunks with 250 ml chopped Turkish apricots. Substitute parsley with two large handfuls of rocket and nuts with halved pecan nuts and sunflower seeds, roasted. Two diced apples is also delicious in this version. Garnish with Parmesan shavings just before serving. 
3. Non-vegetarian version: Add roasted chicken, shredded to any of the aboveSpekkoSaman Brown Rice salads.