Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Brown Rice Broccoli Salad with Cilantro Dressing

When I tell people about the Conscious Cleanse, a food-based cleanse, people often ask me what I eat on the cleanse. I have written about the cleanse and different Conscious Cleanse foods before. Here are a few examples:
  • Curried Carrot Soup – a recipe from the Conscious Cleanse book – it’s one of our favorites
  • Green Soup – I basically came up with this recipe by cleaning out my fridge, but it’s delicious.
  • Here is a post that shows what I ate on one day during a previous Conscience Cleanse. I didn’t eat any “treats” that day, but you could add a date or a “ball” (dates, nuts and other yummy ingredients) or two from the Conscious Cleanse book for a little sweet, delicious treat.
After doing the Conscious Cleanse numerous times, I find that many of the recipes I come up with on my own (I really hardly ever follow a recipe but make things up as I go), are cleanse-friendly. The reason is that the cleanse taught me to make food with fresh, unprocessed ingredients and really helped me to clean up my pantry. In particular, I’ve gotten much better about eliminating packaged sauces, which are usually full of sugar and other not-so-good-for-you ingredients.

A few weeks ago, I started making a brown rice/broccoli salad with a cilantro dressing, and we all like it. It is a cleanse-friendly recipe. I also made the recipe with Romanesco from our CSA box a few times, and we like it even better with Romanesco, but I can’t always find it.


Brown Rice Broccoli Salad with Cilantro Dressing

Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked, warm brown rice
  • 2 heads broccoli, cut into small pieces and lightly steamed (I like it to have some bite), still warm
  • 1/2 cucumber, cut in half and sliced, sprinkled with salt
  • 3 T rice vinegar (make sure it does not have added sugar)
  • 3 T avocado oil
  • 1 t salt
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • Cilantro leaves from about 5 stems (if you don’t like cilantro, basil would be a good substitute but tastes totally different; you can also increase the amount of cilantro leaves for a stronger flavor)
  • 1/2 to 1 small garlic clove (optional)
Directions
  1. Cook the rice and broccoli and keep them warm.
  2. Put the vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, cilantro leaves, and garlic into a small food processor and process until smooth.
  3. Pour the dressing over the warm rice and broccoli and let marinate and cool. Then add the cucumber slices and mix. Refrigerate for a few hours.
  4. Enjoy!
This salad gets better the longer it marinates, so it’s a great dish to make on the weekend and eat for the next few days. It’s also very portable and can be taken to work or the beach, like I did a few weeks ago.


The next Conscious Cleanse starts on April 5, and registration closes on Monday, March 31. Click here for more information and to register.

Questions: Do you usually follow recipes, or do you make things up as you cook? Do you like cilantro? I like it a lot, but my sister hates it and won't eat anything that has any in it, even if it's just a little...

Be well,
Andrea