Black Rice Salad with Beet Greens, Nuts and Olives

Black rice lends a dark elegance to this super simple, super healthy salad. It made for a quick lunch on Monday, but could see serving this at a spring luncheon party topped with a beautiful piece of broiled salmon.

Black rice salad with beet greens, nuts and olives
Four servings, 35 minutes

1 cup black rice
4 cups chopped yellow and red beet greens (rainbow chard would be a fine substitute
1/4 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup raw shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1/4 cup roasted and salted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
2 tablespoons olive tapenade
Pepper

Cook the black rice with two cups of salted water as instructed, it takes just about 30 minutes. While that is cooking, give your beet greens a thorough rinsing. Mine were leftover from roasting beets last week and very sandy. Then chop the greens and tops of the stems. Smash up the raw almonds in a mortar and pestle or using a knife/food processor so that they're roughly the size of the sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

When the rice is finished, drain and rinse it briefly with cold water. Combine the warm rice with the nuts, shredded parmesan and olive tapenade. If you don't have tapenade, use olives, garlic and a bit of olive oil as a replacement. Toss and add a bit of fresh pepper to taste.