Curried Rice Salad

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An incredible fruity, fresh, and delicious curried rice salad with nectarines, toasted almonds, and a creamy curry dressing that calls for summer!

Jump to:

• 🛒 Ingredients
• 👩‍🍳 Visual Step-by-Step Instructions
• 🫙 Make-Ahead & Storage Instructions
• 🥗 More Fruity Summer Salad Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

This colorful curry rice salad is one of my favorite summer salads and is perfect for grilling! It really packs a punch of flavor, is fruity, crunchy, and guests love it.

To give the curried rice salad that beautiful yellow color, the rice is cooked with a pinch of curry powder and ground turmeric. The nectarines provide a fruity and juicy bite. Last but not least, it’s topped with some raisins, toasted almonds, and scallion. To make it perfect, it’s tossed in a creamy vegan dressing made with lots of curry powder and dairy-free yogurt!

If you like fresh fruit in salads, you should definitely try this summer rice salad. It’s gluten-free, vegan, and makes a perfect side dish, summer salad, or a satisfying dinner! 

This curried rice salad recipe is easy to prepare and can be made up to one day in advance. In my opinion, it even tastes better when the salad can sit for a few hours in the refrigerator before serving.

🛒 Ingredients

See recipe card for quantities.

• Parboiled Long-Grain Rice → The rice is best when cooked fresh according to the recipe. However, the recipe can also be made with leftover rice from the previous day. In this case, add some ground turmeric and curry powder to the rice for an intense yellow color. You could also use brown rice or basmati rice.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Curry Powder, Ground Turmeric → Those ingredients ensure that the rice gets an intense curry flavor and a vibrant yellow color.
• Nectarines or Peaches → For an incredibly fresh, fruity, and juicy salad. Apple or pineapple works too! In winter, try to swap it with orange and pistachios.
• Almonds → Provide a great crunch and nutty flavor.
• Sultanas or Raisins → Adds some sweetness to the salad. Can be omitted or replaced by currants.
• Scallion → Provide more flavor.
• Dairy-Free yogurt (sugar-free), Olive Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Curry Powder, Maple Syrup, Salt, Black Pepper → These ingredients make the creamy dressing. Apple cider vinegar can be replaced with white balsamic vinegar or lemon juice/lime juice. Vegetarians can use a dairy yogurt; the dairy-free version is used for a vegan salad version.

Garnish: Feel free to add some herbs of your choice, such as fresh cilantro, fresh mint, or parsley.

Extra Protein: Add cooked beans!

👩‍🍳 Visual Step-by-Step Instructions

This visual step-by-step instruction will help you along the way – definitely recommended if you’re a cooking beginner! 😉

• Cook Rice: Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add curry powder and ground turmeric, sauté for 30 seconds. Add rice, stir-fry for another minute. Deglaze with 2 ⅔ cup boiling water and add a pinch of salt. Cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.

• Mix all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Chop almonds and toast them in a skillet without oil for 5 minutes until golden brown. Cut nectarines into cubes and scallion into fine rings.
• Add rice, nectarines, sultanas, almonds, scallion, and dressing in a large bowl and toss well. → Serve directly or let it sit in the fridge for up to one hour before serving!

🫙 Make-Ahead & Storage Instructions

You can easily make this salad up to one day in advance. Personally, I prefer when the salad sits in the fridge for a while before serving. It tastes even better and is more aromatic.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Stays fresh for 3 days.

🥗 More Fruity Summer Salad Recipes

• Grilled Peach Salad
• Strawberry Avocado Pasta Salad
• Curried Chickpea Salad
• Watermelon Feta Salad
• Strawberry Spinach Salad

📖 Recipe