Sweet & sour rice salad with cherries, pine nuts & all the herbs
Nobody loves cherry season more than Joey. She’s out of control and devours punnets of them daily. This summery recipe is a firm favourite from the archives, originally written for Great British Chefs in 2017, and it’s one we’ve enjoyed every summer since.
Needless to say we are already ticking off the days in anticipation of cherry season - that’s late June until the end of August here in the UK. Not long to wait…
This salad is sweet and tangy thanks to the cherries and pomegranate molasses, crunchy and refreshing thanks to the cucumber and fresh herbs, and wholesome and satiating thanks to the wholegrain rice. It’s the perfect match for a chilled Beaujolais and you can read more about this food & wine pairing here.
This is a great recipe to serve as summer spread if you are having guests over as it can be fully made in advance. In fact, it’s even a little tastier made an hour in advance as the rice will absorb more of the dressing and cherry juice.
Prep time: 20 minutes (+ 2 hr soaking rice)
Cooking time: 22-30 minutes
This recipe serves 4 people.
Ingredients :
200 g wholegrain rice (1 cup)
1 red onion
1 tsp sumac
1 tsp red wine or sherry vinegar
250 g cherries
2 baby cucumber (or 1 regular)
30 g mint (or a generous handful)
30 g dill (or a generous handful)
30 g flat leaf parsley (or a generous handful)
60 g pine nuts, toasted
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
6 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt
To garnish:
½ lemon
za’atar, optional
dukkah, optional
Method:
Soak the rice for 2 hours in cold water, then drain and rinse well. Cover the rice generously with cold water in a large saucepan, add a pinch of salt, and bring to a gentle simmer for 22-30 minutes, or until cooked through.
Drain the rice through a sieve or colander and rinse with a little cold water. Allow the steam to billow off as much as possible, to avoid a wet, heavy salad.
While the rice is cooling, peel, half and finely sliced onion into wafer thin half-moons - the thinner the better! - then toss with the sumac, red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt to macerate.
Half and de-stoned the cherries; chop the cucumber into thin rounds (if you are using a regular cucumber quarter it first and remove its watery core); and finely chop all the herbs.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over a very low heat; watch your pan like a hawk and shimmy these around often. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until golden.
To make the dressing stir together the pomegranate molasses, olive oil and sea salt.
Combine all your prepped ingredients in a large mixing bowl, toss well with the pomegranate dressing, then transfer into a serving dish.
Garnish with a few extra herbs if you wish, some za’atar, and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice to brighten that first mouthful!
This salad is wonderful served with creamy hummus, dukkah, flatbreads and seasonal crudités.
And the vegcentirc wine pairing?
We recommend a Beaujolais… Sweet fruity cherries match the wine’s famous ‘cherries & raspberries’ profile and tart pomegranate molasses goes toe-to-toe with Beaujolais’s bright acidity without overpowering with astringency. Read more on Beaujolais here.
