Picnic Basket Rice Salad

1) Rice

2) Vegetables and Beans

3) Dressing and Seasoning

1) Put rice and water on to cook (enough for 4-6 servings, give or take)

2) Gather and prepare some of the following:

½ onion, diced small
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 carrots, grated
1 sweet pepper (red, yellow, green), chopped
cherry tomatoes, whole or halved
any other raw vegetable
1-2 courgettes/zucchinis, very-lightly steam or boil small chunks, or stir fry very thin half moon slices
1-2 bunches broccoli, very lightly steam or boil florets and chopped stalk
bunch asparagus, very lightly steam or boil bite-sized pieces
a bowl of mushrooms, sliced and sauteed
a bowl of skinny green beans, very lightly steamed bite-sized pieces
any other cooked vegetable
some frozen corn, cook by adding to the pot of one of the above vegetables, for the last minute or so
some frozen peas, cook as the corn
1-2 cans of beans, drained (mix and match as you like)

3) About 1/3 of a bottle of your favourite salad dressing (give or take)

Mix all ingredients together, with plenty of salt and pepper and herbs (basil and thyme or your choice) to taste.
Serve room temperature or cold (if you’ve made it the day before and refrigerated it.)
This works with any kind of rice, one veg or ten, any seasoning theme.
Good for last minute picnic, barbeque, potluck offerings, as well as clean out the fridge days.