Crispy Rice, Twice as Nice
Every refrigerator has furniture. You know, the items that are virtually always there, fixtures of the 40-degree landscape that you may take for granted. In mine, it's eggs — or was eggs, in any case — over in the left corner of the top shelf; the Persian cucumbers in the crisper; the Mason jar of herbs in water on the right side of the bottom shelf; and the quart container of leftover rice smack in the middle of it all.
Sometimes the rice is plain; sometimes it's seasoned with salted butter and thinly sliced scallions. But it is always there, waiting for me, like a sofa in the living room. What is not part of my wider kitchen landscape, however, is a microwave. But like any scrappy New Yorker maneuvering about her tiny kitchen, I find a way. And that way is crispy rice.
Crispy rice — or leftover rice that is cooked again in fat until it's singed and crunchy, yet still soft and chewy in spots — can add pops of texture to salads in lieu of croutons or nuts. My platonic ideal looks a lot like Alexa Weibel's crispy rice salad with halloumi and ginger-lime vinaigrette: crispy rice stained marigold by turmeric, pickly red onion, squeaky cheese, baby greens (or better yet, arugula) and plenty of acid.
View this recipe.
It is easy to make this dish vegan: 'If you don't eat dairy, sliced or chopped avocado is a suitable substitute for the halloumi,' Alexa writes. 'It's not quite as textural, but it will provide great richness and heft to the salad.' I'd even add in some seared tofu in addition to avocado, if you go that route, to add some protein to the mix.
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