I lived in Italy for a few years. Italian summers are really hot and humid. It's rather like a North Carolina summer, except in Italy most places don't have any air-conditioning at all. This is true of places of business, but definitely true of houses. So all the Italian people change their eating habits in the summer so they don't have to heat up the kitchen (and the whole apartment). One of the common meals is a cold rice salad. This salad is meant to be served cold and is quite refreshing. You could heat up the rice a little before you toss the veggies in with it though. The other great thing about it is how quickly you can make it if you have leftover rice in the fridge.
As is typical with salad recipes, I totally just eyeball this, so this "recipe" doesn't contain real measurements.
Italian-style Rice Salad
Cooked brown rice
Cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
Celery
Cucumber
Carrot
Onion or Leeks
Frozen green peas, warmed up
Olive oil, drizzled over the salad
Salt
Pepper
Directions: Chop up all the veggies into decently small pieces. Toss everything into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
sounds really good...can't wait to try this :)
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