Multi Grain Rice Salad

To balance all those sinfully rich desserts and daily Milo/coffee drinks I indulge in, I try to make balanced wholesome meals at home sometimes. Much as I try to buy enough for 3x cooking a week, we usually end up cooking barely once or at best, twice. Today I discovered an even faster way of whipping up a meal than my usual cut/marinade/oven-grill. It's probably used by many ladies all the time already but somehow only occur to my little-used culinary mind.. and that is to cook rice in the rice cooker and steam the vegetables at the same time!

Everything will put together in only 15min of prep and 30 minutes of cooking (by the rice cooker). It was delicious and entirely wholesome! Multi-grained rice cooked to plumpness, steamed broccoli and carrots for the vegetable portion, chickpeas and tuna in olive oil for protein, avocado for healthy fat and coriander/chilli padi for that additional oomph to the overall flavor of the dish.

Hub and I loved the one-bowl dish and he has declared this as his preferred grain over quinoa. It's so easy to eat that we probably over-ate the necessary portions and it kept us full over the next 5 hours! It's so easy, so healthy, so packed with nutrients, I urge everyone to try this:

Ingredients: (serves 2 hungry adults)
3/4 cup Multi-grain rice (you can substitute with brown rice or quinoa)
Cut Broccoli and sliced carrots (or any veg of your choice)
4 garlic cloves
Pinch of Sea salt
Half can of garbanzo beans, washed and drained
1/2 can of Tuna flakes in olive oil
1 avocado, sliced
Handful of coriander
2 chilli padi

Dressing:
6 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
Juice from half a lemon
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
1 finely cut chilli padi
Sea salt and pepper
Mix everything together, stir to emulsify and place in fridge to cool

Method:
1. Soak rice for 15 minutes, wash and place in rice cooker
2. Add 1.5 cups of water, one tablespoon olive oil, pinch of sea salt and garlic cloves. Start the "cook" process.
3. 10 minutes later, add the broccoli and carrots to the steaming basket and place into the rice cooker.
4. 10 minutes later, add the chickpeas to the steaming basket.
5. Once rice is cooked, toss vegetables, tuna and dressing together. Add avocado, coriander and chilli padi to serve.

Goodness in a plate!