When summer days get really hot, I love to eat refreshing main-course salads. Give me a big plate or bowl of greens with some other seasonal vegetables, maybe add a piece of grilled fish or chicken, drizzle on a well-seasoned dressing, and I’m happy.
Sometimes, however, I want my salads to be more filling and satisfying than just a pile of leaves.
That’s why I like to turn to grains.
Whether you use rice, the grain-shaped little North African pasta known as couscous, robust wheat berries, or the lighter-tasting, now-fashionable ancestor of wheat known by the Italian term “farro” or the English “spelt,” grains are ideal salad ingredients. Starchy and filling, they are nevertheless very light on the palate. The tiny individual grains work together to create a pleasingly complex texture with every bite, and they mix well with a wide variety of other ingredients too.
Their flavors, meanwhile, tend to be fairly neutral, so they go with lots of complementary ingredients as well as offering leeway in how you season the salad. Add cumin, fresh cilantro and a touch of cinnamon, and you have a Mexican grain salad. Opt for mint, cilantro, garlic, green onions and a spritz of lime and your salad travels across the Pacific to Southeast Asia. Or, as I do in the recipe here, you can travel in the opposite direction and head for Spain, making a salad inspired by the classic rice dish paella.
For a salad, avoid the shorter-grain kinds of rice traditionally used for paella, opting instead for longer varieties that, having less surface starch, will stay more separate during cooking and remain so when cold. Once the grain is done, cool it down fairly quickly by spreading it out on a baking sheet, so residual heat won’t continue to cook it past the ideal point of being tender but still slightly chewy.
The final touch to transform the cooled paella into a salad is to add a splash of vinaigrette dressing, here featuring typically Spanish sherry vinegar. Serve it on top of a bed of baby greens, casually arranging some of the shrimp, chicken breast chunks and little cubes of bell pepper on top, so that your satisfying summer grain meal begins as you feast with your eyes.
Paella salad
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Cooling time: 20 minutes
Chilling time: 3 hours
Yield: 6 servings
Grain salad
3 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 each, cored, seeded, diced: red bell pepper, green bell pepper
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
1/2 pound medium raw shrimp, peeled, deveined
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives, dill, tarragon, or a mixture
Sherry-garlic vinaigrette:
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1. Heat the broth and saffron in a large pot over medium-high heat a full simmer. Cover; reduce heat to lowest setting.
2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet or paella pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken; cook, stirring constantly, until it loses its pink color, about 3 minutes. Add the bell peppers and onion; cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic; cook 1 minute more. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Stir in the rice, stirring to coat all the grains with the oil. Pour in the hot saffron broth; heat to a boil. Taste; adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Reduce heat to medium; cook until the liquid no longer looks soupy but there is still a generous quantity of liquid, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
4. Arrange shrimp on top of the rice mixture. Transfer the skillet, uncovered, to the oven. Bake until the shrimp are cooked through and most of the liquid has been absorbed or evaporated, but some remains, about 13 to15 minutes.
5. Remove the skillet from the oven; top with peas, parsley and other herbs. Cover with lid or foil; set aside until the rice is tender and has absorbed the remaining liquid, about 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, for the vinaigrette, place the garlic, parsley and chives in a mixing bowl. Whisk in the sherry vinegar. Add olive oil slowly, whisking continuously; set aside.
7. When the paella liquid has been absorbed, spread mixture on a baking sheet. Drizzle with half of the vinaigrette; set aside to cool, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a large food storage container or bowl; cover. Refrigerate paella and remaining dressing, covered, until well chilled, at least 3 hours.
8. To serve, remove chilled paella and remaining vinaigrette from refrigerator. Place baby greens in a medium bowl; toss with just enough of the remaining dressing to coat lightly, about 2 tablespoons. Arrange beds of baby greens on individual chilled serving plates. Mound the paella salad on top. Drizzle with the remaining dressing.
Nutrition information per serving:
639 calories, 43% of calories from fat, 30 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 78 mg cholesterol, 63 g carbohydrates, 27 g protein, 930 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
