Black Rice Salad with Fennel, Cucumber, Sun-dried Tomato & Lemon

Light and refreshing rice salad was well received today at the Georgia Organics Conference. As promised here's the recipe! The addition of goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, capers or olives would make this a wonderfully Mediterranean dish, much like this Mediterranean Black Rice Salad that I made a couple of weeks ago. Hmmm, I'm detecting a theme...


Black Rice Salad with Fennel, Cucumber, Sun-dried Tomato & Lemon

3 cups Japonica rice blend (cooked and cooled)
3 scallions (sliced, green and white parts)
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced then diced
2 garden cucumbers
1 cup sundried tomatoes
1 bunch parsley, chopped
juiced from 2 lemons
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the fennel, scallion and lemon juice in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and allow to sit for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel, seed and dice the cucumbers.

Also rehydrate the sundried tomatoes by bringing them to a boil in a small sauce pan with about 1 1 /2-2 cups of water. Once boiling, remove from heat and let set until cool enough to handle. Drain the water off, and dice the tomatoes.

Add tomatoes, cooked rice, cucumber, parsley and olive oil to the fennel mixture and stir well.

Check for seasoning and serve or refrigerate, covered up to three days. Prior to serving check the flavors as you may need more lemon juice, salt or pepper.