Quick Mexican Brown Rice Salad & Dressing

Why This Mexican Rice Salad Will Be A Favorite

• Mexican rice salad is simple to make and perfect for serving cold as a side dish salad or warm as a vegan main course.
• It takes less than 20 minutes to make!
• Salad recipes with brown rice, such as this one, are very filling, gluten-free, and nutritious.
• There are a variety of chopped peppers, tomatoes, beans, and corn to make this a fresh-tasting salad.
• It’s a salad your entire family will enjoy, and you can feel good about serving a healthy meal.

⏲ Smart Shortcut: I like to use Success Boil in Bag Brown Rice for this recipe. The rice turns out perfect each time I cook it, and it’s quick and easy. I always keep several boxes on hand.

Groceries Needed For Mexican Brown Rice Salad

This salad is packed with nutritious ingredients that are easy to keep on hand for a quick hearty salad.

Cilantro Dressing Tips

• Olive oil: Be sure to use a good quality cold-pressed olive oil for the best flavor.
• Lime juice and zest: Only use fresh squeezed lime juice and zest. No green bottle!
• Cilantro: Only use fresh cilantro, not dried.
• Garlic: Peel and chop your garlic cloves. The precut in a jar does not have the same flavor.

Rice Salad Ingredient Tips

• Brown rice: You can make your own brown rice or use Success quick boil-in-bag whole grain brown rice. Using leftover chilled brown rice is also a good option.

• Black beans: The easiest way to make this salad is with canned black beans. Just be sure to rinse and drain them well. If you leave the juice, they will make the salad look mushy and have too creamy a texture. If you are interested, you could also can your own beans.

• Tomatoes: For this recipe, I suggest using Roma because they have meatier flesh and fewer seeds.

• Bell peppers: Use a variety of colors, such as red, green, yellow, and orange.

• Jalapeño: These add a little heat punch to the recipe. If you have family members that don’t like spicy, then try using my pickled jalapeños recipe. They are a sweet heat that is perfect for this cold Mexican rice salad.

• Corn: I like to use small shoepeg corn for this recipe. It’s sweeter. You could use frozen or canned.

• Tomatillos: They give the salad an extra fresh zip of flavor. Peel off the husk, wash the sticky coating off, and dice into dime size pieces.

👀 See the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.

🇲🇽 How To Make Mexican Rice Salad

Prepare your rice salad dressing first. This will give it time to infuse the flavors together. This step could be done the day before. Keep the dressing in your refrigerator in a jar with a tight-fitting lid.

Prepare Dressing

1. Whisk together olive oil, lime juice, zest, cilantro, cumin, and garlic in a small mixing bowl. Another option would be to put all the ingredients into a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake well.
2. Set the dressing asside while preparing the rest of the salad so the flavors can infuse.

Brown Rice Salad

1. Cook brown rice. Allow cooling for. a few minutes before mixing with other ingredients unless you make this a warm salad. Both warm and cool rice would be good.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, add cool brown rice, rinsed and drained black beans, diced tomatoes, tomatillos, bell peppers, jalapeños, corn, and onion.
3. Shake the dressing well and pour over the rice and vegetables. Toss well to coat evenly.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Rice Salad Add-In Ideas

This is a flexible recipe, allowing you to get creative. Try mixing in one or two of these.

• Slices of grilled chicken
• Any variety of your favorite beans, rinsed and drained
• Diced avocado
• Top with sour cream, a bit of shredded cheese, or salsa
• Diced jicama, nopales, zucchini, yellow squash, radish, or carrots.

How To Make Mexican Rice Salad A Main Dish Meal

This Mexican rice and bean salad makes a great no-meat, budget-friendly, warm main dish.

1. Instead of adding raw veggies, sauté the peppers, onion, and corn in a frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Only saute for a short time. You wanted vegetables lightly cooked, not soft and mushy.
2. Then add the tomatoes, tomatillos, and beans, heating just until warm.
3. Toss the warm rice and veggies with room-temperature cilantro dressing.

Leftovers

You could double this recipe so you have leftovers for the next day’s lunch. Place in an air-tight container in your fridge for up to 4 days. You can eat it cold or warm it up slightly in a microwave.

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