Italian Rice Salad For Summer Days

Every food culture in the world has some staple dishes that never change and every family adapts to their own tastes and fantasy.

A salad for hot summer days

One of these dishes, during boiling hot Italian summer days, is the “insalata di riso.”

Every Italian family always produces a ridiculous amount of insalata di riso, and we all end up having it for days in a row. Anyway, I love it so much that I don’t really care.

It’s a very simple dish with white rice as a base. Any rice that is non-sticky will work perfectly. In this case, I used some Basmati that I had already opened and I undercooked it on purpose, to avoid getting it overcooked while it cools down.

About the rest of the recipe, it’s all about fantasy!

My own family recipe has pickled veggies, such as carrots and onions, canned button mushrooms, peas, raw bell peppers, and green beans, and as proteins we use cubed ham, boiled eggs, and firm cheese.

An appealing colorful plate

Creating a colorful plate like this helped my mum to make me accept veggies when I was a kid. It brings so much joy just looking at it!

I just wonder why I did not like veggies back then, when now I cannot live without a good salad. My mum always points out how much I have changed when it comes to food.

Ingredients easy on a sensitive bowel

The positive side of using pickled and canned veggies is that they become a lot more bearable for us with IBS. Keeping them in these ways allows them to release a big part of what is irritating for our sensitive bowel. The same as cannet legumes.
It has been a great discovery for me. I adore mushrooms and I have been missing them for a long time, before finding out I could actually have the canned ones!

Many flavors, and many colors, and everyone is happy.

Buon appetito!

Makes: 4 servings
Serving size: about 1/4 each
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: around 15 minutes (or as written on the rice package)

Ingredients for the Italian rice salad

• About 12 oz of Basmati rice
• 2.5 oz of canned peas
• 2.5 oz of pickled carrots
• 1 oz of pickled onions
• 3.5 oz of cubed ham
• 2 oz of your favorite lactose free cheese
• 1 bell pepper
• 10 canned button mushrooms
• 7 oz of canned tuna in olive oil
• 1 boiled egg
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• 1 spoon of mayo per person (optional)

Directions for the Italian rice salad

1. Put a wide metal/glass tray in the fridge
2. Cook the rice for the time indicated in the container minus a couple of minutes
3. Boil the egg
4. In the meantime, cut everything into cubes
5. Once the rice is cooked, drain it and add it to the cool tray and let it sit until cold
6. Once the rice has cooled down, mix all the ingredients together
7. I like a vinegary taste, but you don’t have to put it
8. Add mayo if you want more flavor, this is my mum's recipe and I have to follow it!