The Sweet Taste of Summer

I rarely eat puddings or cakes because I’m usually too full by the time that part of a meal comes around but I often hanker for a bit of sweetness in my food. I satisfy this by adding fruit to many a main meal or starter dish. The current favourite is to add crisp and crunchy apples to salads. And my favourite apple of the moment is Pink Lady. It has a lovely pink blush to the flesh and a champagne-like sweet flavour. The upside is that one apple only has 50 calories yet loads of Vitamin C.

This simple rice salad has a Chilean flavour by the addition of chipotle paste. It’s available from most supermarkets and has a wonderful smokey barbecue flavour with the kick of chilli. This is a perfect lunchtime vegetarian dish or delicious accompaniment to barbecue fare or cold meat deli-style platter.

CHILEAN SPICY PINK LADY APPLE RICE SALAD

Ingredients

Metric/US

100g/1/2 cup long grain and wild rice mix

2 shallots or 1 small onion, chopped

1/2 sweet pointed Romano pepper/capsicum, deseeded and very finely sliced

1 stick/stalk celery, finely chopped

1 Pink Lady apple, cored and chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

4 tsp seedless raisins/seeded raisins

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander/cilantro

1/2 tsp mild chilli powder

2 tsp chipotle paste

2 tbsp/3tbsp O% fat Greek yogurt

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the rice, bring back to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15-18 minutes until cooked (or follow the specific pack instructions). Drain in a sieve and rinse in cold water. Drain again thoroughly and transfer to a serving bowl.

2. Add the shallots or onion, pepper, celery, apple, tomato, raisins and coriander/cilantro.

3. Mix the chilli powder with the chipotle paste, yogurt and salt and pepper to taste then add to the rice mixture. Mix well to combine.

SERVES 2

WLS PORTION: 1/2

V suitable for vegetarians

CALORIES PER PORTION: 266

PROTEIN: 7.9g

CARBOHYDRATE: 55.7g

FAT: 1.6g

Image courtesy of Pink Lady Apples