Edamame Rice Salad

 As a full-time student with a somewhat crazy schedule who prefers to cook for herself, I’m always on the lookout for one-dish meals that are healthy, simple, and easy to carry with me and eat on the run if necessary. Rice salads (or salads with any grain as a base, really) are a staple for me because they’re satisfying meals that fit in little tupperware containers, you can concoct them out of any ingredients you have around, and they’re usually good hot or cold.

This is one of my go-to rice salads. I believe it was inspired by a copy of Vegetarian Times that my aunt gave me a few years ago, but it also came together based on what odds and ends I happened to have in my fridge/pantry one week (rice, dried cranberries, feta) while living in my first post-college apartment. It's been a staple of mine ever since.

My roommate brought me some feta from the farmer’s market last weekend, and after enjoying it in a few falafel salads as a friend to white wine, I was looking for a worthy way to use the rest as the week approached. This rice salad has some awesome flavor combinations—I’m a sucker for sweet/salty contrasts, so I love its matchup of cranberries and slightly sweet brown rice vs. feta and green olives. It is also a beautiful dish—even my roommate, who had treated himself to a steak dinner the night I made this, couldn’t resist having some.

Ingredients

½ cup brown rice, uncooked

8 oz. edamame (you can use fresh or frozen, pre-shelled or DIY)

¼ cup dried cranberries

2 oz. crumbled feta

1 handful green olives, halved (I used stuffed manzanella olives, but kalamata olives are great too)

3 T cilantro, chopped

1 T olive oil

juice of half a lime

Sriracha to taste (I used about ½ tsp)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Start cooking the rice (bring 1 cup water with a dash of salt to a boil, add rice, turn to low, and simmer about 30 min. or until you reach the texture you like, stirring occasionally).

If your edamame is frozen, bring 2 cups water with a pinch or two of salt to a boil, add edamame, cook until tender (about 2 min. for shelled edamame), and drain. If your beans are unshelled, cook them a little longer until they are tender and the shells are easy to split. Drain them, let them cool, and shell them.

When the rice is done, toss all the ingredients together, season with salt and pepper, and serve warm.

Enjoy,

KB