When I was young, if my mother said we were having salad, it likely meant a side dish of torn iceberg lettuce leaves and thin wedges of tomatoes, dressed with drizzles of vegetable oil and red wine vinegar and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I remember her making herself tomato and onion or cucumber and onion salads. And we ate potato salad, egg salad and tuna salad, too, but that was about as complex as it got during my formative years.

As time went on, our salads become much more lively affairs as my mother experimented with varied greens and vegetables and so many add-ins, such as crisped bacon, grated or chopped cheeses, sesame sticks and nuts. She got into making fruit salads in the 1970s. The U.S. pasta salad craze of the 1980s looms large in my memory, too. Eventually, sometimes the salad was the whole meal.

Merriam-Webster offers this broad definition of salad: “raw greens (such as lettuce) often combined with other vegetables and toppings and served especially with dressing” and “small pieces of food (such as pasta, meat, fruit, or vegetables) usually mixed with a dressing (such as mayonnaise) or set in gelatin.”

The term salad is applied so liberally that it allows us to turn just about any combination of foods into a salad. (Can a grain bowl also be a salad? Not always, but some definitely qualify.)

One of the things I love about that free-spirited interpretation of what a salad can be is that I often whip up one from what I have on hand. It might have greens. It might not. It might be fruit and nuts. It might be served warm or cold. And, with no boundaries, I’m able to make salads from whatever is in my pantry and refrigerator. Leftovers often find a second life in salads. A few straggler olives (and a splash of the brine from the jar), wilting scallions, past-its-prime parsley with stems and often cabbage, carrots or celery – due to their long shelf life.

That’s what appealed to me about this simple salad from “A New Way to Food” by Maggie Battista. In her cookbook, which describes her journey developing a healthy relationship with food, she calls the dish Italian-Style Leftover Rice Salad, but I’ve renamed it Rice Salad With Beans, Lemon and Herbs just to make it a little clearer from the get-go what is in it.

Battista makes it with whatever leftover rice she might have. Like her, we often have rice with our meals and so there’s usually leftover rice lingering in the refrigerator or freezer. If you have cooked rice on hand, she notes that this salad comes together in about 15 minutes.

It calls for mixed young salad greens, and Battista describes it as “immensely satisfying” due to those greens, the creamy white beans, and the starchy rice.” She sometimes adds canned tuna on top, too.

I couldn’t recall ever making a beans-and-rice salad, but now I know I will experiment with idea, adding it to my weeknight, leftovers and pantry salad repertoire. Maybe you’ll feel the same way.

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Rice Salad With Beans, Lemon and Herbs

20 minutes

4 servings

In her cookbook “A New Way to Food,” Maggie Battista writes about making this simple salad – which she dubbed Italian-Style Leftover Rice Salad – using Spanish turmeric rice. “It may seem strange to suggest adding Spanish rice to an Italian-style rice salad, but it feels natural to me as my family was a mix of both of these cultures. … We ate (rice) for practically every meal and always managed to have half a pot leftover.” If you have leftover rice of almost any kind in the refrigerator or freezer, you can toss this dish together in 15 to 20 minutes. Here we made it with long-grain white rice. The combination of creamy white beans, rice and bright greens and herbs make for a bright, light main or side dish. You can use canned or homemade beans, add big handfuls of greens or be judicious. Battista suggests adding tinned tuna as well, as an option.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 2 days.

NOTE: If you don’t have leftover rice and need to make a fresh batch, the amount of uncooked rice you’ll need to yield 1 cup of cooked rice will vary depending on the chosen rice. For 1 cup of cooked long-grain white rice, rinse 1/3 cup of rice until the water runs clear. Then, place it in a small, lidded saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon olive oil and stir to coat the rice. Add 2/3 cup of water, a pinch of salt, if desired, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the rice is tender and the water is absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 cup cooked white or brown rice

2 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 medium lemon) or red wine vinegar

2 handfuls mixed young salad greens

2 scallions, sliced

1/2 medium sweet white onion (about 4 ounces), peeled, halved and thinly sliced

1 cup (9 1/4 ounces) cooked cannellini beans

Leaves from 4 sprigs fresh oregano

Fine salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Lemon wedges, for serving (optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a shallow skillet over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil until shimmering. Add the rice and sauté until just warmed, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat.

Drizzle the lemon juice and the remaining 1 tablespoon of the oil along the inside of a large salad bowl. Add the greens, scallions, onion, beans and oregano. Add the rice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Using clean hands or a fork and spoon, gently toss everything together, coating it with the lemon juice and the oil that’s in the bowl.

Taste, and season with more salt and/or pepper, if needed. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired.

Nutrition information per serving (1 1/4 cup) | Calories: 388; Total Fat: 15 g; Saturated Fat: 2 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 163 mg; Carbohydrates: 52 g; Dietary Fiber: 8 g; Sugar: 4 g; Protein: 12 g

This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.

Adapted from “A New Way to Food” by Maggie Battista (Roost Books, 2019).