Rice salad with hot red salsa and beans

Recipe for rice salad with red hot salsa and beans

Preparation and cooking

• - Cook soaked beans with bay leaf in plenty of cold water until tender.
  You need about 30 to 40 minutes or more time.
  Add water (hot) only if necessary.
• - Meanwhile prepare red salsa (called also salsa rubra or tomato sauce) following my instructions. The link to the recipe below.
• - Cook rice until al dente stage.
  Drain it very well and pour into a large bowl.
• - Dress it with tomato sauce, extra virgin olive oil and stir.
• - Add your well-drained beans (when cooked), season to taste with salt and stir.

Just before serving

• - Let sit your rice salad before serving, at least 1 hour. If chilled first, bring back to room temperature to serve.

Note

Tips

• - This tomato-and-bean rice salad is a do-ahead dish.
• - Something more about tomato sauce of Piedmont or red salsa or Italian salsa rubra ...
  My husband and I usually prepare it in summer when we have fleshy, juicy and fragrant tomatoes in our organi garden.
  Invariably, we use a little of them to do this tasty cold rice. We freeze remaining sauce in practical trays according to the portions we generally use. I remember you this sauce is perfect, once warmed up, on the top of boiled meats, specially in fall and winter menus. To defrost in the late fall and winter, put it in the refrigerator for a few hours, from morning to evening. Then warm it up just before serving.
• - For a quick recipe: use canned beans and ready-to-eat red salsa. Below more details.

Menu planning

• - This tomato-and-bean rice salad is a tasty cold dish for your family in summer.
• - This rice salad can also be prepared for a get-together or to accompany grilled meats in a BBQ party.
  Do you want to know how we Italians plan a BBQ party? Read more on barbeque
  Very special in alfresco dinner menu too!
  In both the last cases it serves more people.

Useful links for this recipe

• - Here's the recipe for Piedmontese hot red salsa, the main ingredient for this rice salad recipe.
• - Surfing Internet my husband found a product (red salsa by Emerald Valley) that has more or less the same ingredients. You can choose among three salsas according to your own taste. Obviously the best is making red salsa at home! But if you have no time ...
• - Seen I had some problems in translating the particular kind of beans I used in my recipe, I add the link to wikipedia page for cowpeas.
• - You could be interested in reading how to plan a BBQ party, Italian-style.

Healthy eating

• - This rice salad is a great cold rice dish in which there is the so salutary pairing of pasta and legumes, one of the major assets of the Mediterranean diet. In practice we find in a single pot all the major nutrients: carbohydrates (rice), protein (beans), fats, fiber, vitamins and minerals.
  If you like the combination of its ingredients and would prepare it for your dinner or lunch, use these amounts per head: 50g (1 3/4 ounce) rice, 30g (1 ounce) dried beans, less than 2 tsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp red salsa or more according to your own taste.
  Complete your menu with a fresh seasonal salad made with grated carrots, yellow bell peppers in strips, chicory and other greens, sliced onions. Dress with less than 2 tsp olive oil per head.
• - Fibers in this cold rice dish are 4.1g
• - If you want to drink a glass of wine remember you have to add 80-85 calories per 100ml.

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

My husband and I like very much Sangiovese from Romagna (red wine from Emilia Romagna - Italy) to match with this rice salad. Enjoy it!