After the Caesar salad I presented to you some time ago, I’m back with another easy and quick salad idea: tuna rice salad made with plenty of onions and red bell peppers. This cold rice salad is simply a delight. It’s perfect for serving with your summer grills, and what’s more, it’s ready in just 15 minutes!
About This Unique Rice Salad
As I mentioned earlier, this salad is perfect for summer to accompany a grill, as it is filling due to the rice. It can also serve well as a lunch or even as a light evening meal. What I love about this recipe is that you don’t have to stick to a traditional rice salad; you can choose to use ingredients that appeal to you. I’ll tell you what I used for this recipe. If there’s an ingredient you don’t like, feel free to substitute it or omit it altogether.
What to Include in a Rice Salad: Ingredients
For this mixed rice salad, I used:
- Rice
- Red bell pepper
- tuna
- Feta cheese
- Red onion
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Fresh basil
- Salt and pepper
How to Make a Tuna Rice Salad?
Tuna Rice Salad Recipe
This recipe is super easy to make. After cooking the rice, just chop up all the other ingredients and mix them together.
For the salad dressing, you don’t have to make it separately. Simply add the dressing ingredients directly into the salad and stir well. More details about the recipe can be found at the end of the article.
Rice Salad Dressing
For the rice salad dressing, I whipped up something really simple using ingredients everyone has on hand. I used:
- Mayonnaise
- A bit of olive oil to complement the oil from the tuna
- A few sprigs of fresh basil for that extra freshness
- Salt, pepper, and a little more to taste
Which Rice to Use for Rice Salad?
I personally prefer using basmati rice because it cooks pretty fast, just 10-12 minutes and it’s ready to go. You can also use long grain rice if you like. Even easier, I find using pre-packaged cooking rice bags a real time-saver.
How to Keep Rice Salad from Sticking?
As I explained in my post on how to cook rice perfectly, it’s super important to wash the rice well before you start cooking. This step helps remove the starch and prevents the rice from sticking together.
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rice salad
Ingredients
- 200 g of cooked rice
- ½ cucumber diced
- 3 tomatoes diced
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 can of tuna drained
- 1 package of feta cheese crumbled
- A few sprigs of fresh basil chopped
- 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the rice: Cook the rice according to the package instructions, then let it cool completely. Leftover rice from the previous day is perfect for a better texture.
- Prep the veggies: Wash and dice the cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, and red bell pepper into uniform pieces.
- Assemble the salad: In a large mixing bowl, toss together the cooled rice, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, red bell pepper, and drained tuna.
- Add feta and basil: Crumble the feta over the rice mix and sprinkle in the chopped fresh basil.
- Add the dressing: Drizzle the mayonnaise and olive oil directly into the bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then gently mix everything together to coat evenly.
- Serve: For the best flavor, chill the salad in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving. This allows the flavors to blend beautifully.
