"Balance" Black Rice Salad W/ Sweet Potatoes and Pomegranate Seeds

This black rice recipe makes for a colorful side dish that is as delicious as it looks! The sweetness of the potatoes is balanced with the savory nutty flavor of the rice and the tartness from the pomegranate seeds and all work together for an incredible mouth experience.

Often when I cook I take on different personalities. For this Black Rice Salad w/ Sweet Potatoes recipe I was in Malcolm Wang mode aka the Afro-Asian. Listening to Japanese techno and watching a lot of Korean revenge flicks can put you in a different mindset.

I was up in the wee hours cooking recently. It was about 2:00 in the morning when I decided to take a break from cooking. I sat down to catch-up on one of my favorite Korean dramas, "Rooftop Prince" and it occurred to me that I had a big ole bag of Black Rice on hand.

What is black rice?

During my years in Chicago living so close to an Asian Grocery Store Jung Boo Market and developed a habit of eating black "forbidden" rice quite often. Black rice in my opinion is superior to brown and white rice in taste and texture. Also, its color lends itself to visually appealing dishes. It has a slight sweetness to it that makes it a nice contrast with savory ingredients or a good combo with other sweet ingredients.

How to Cook Black Rice Salad

Step 1: Prepare the rice

Step 2: Prepare the sweet potatoes

Step 3: Prepare the salad

Serving Suggestions

For a full vegan meal, I pair this dish with spaghetti squash with basil pesto. Otherwise, the salad makes for a great holiday side or every day with smoked trout or brined pork chops.

Black Rice Cooking Tips

• Black rice would actually make an amazing natural purple dye for foods. However, because of this, it's a bit like working with turmeric so be careful when handling it because it will stain all of your equipment. Avoid storing it in plastic containers, wash your kitchen tools shortly after using them to cook black rice, and don't wear your fanciest attire when cooking.
• Black rice can be used in a rice cooker. You'll just need to rinse fully to remove any excess starch before cooking otherwise the rice will be gummy. Remember, black rice stains everything so use a metal or glass bowl to rinse.
• Black rice requires a longer cooking time than white rice. Soaking reduces the cook time but changes the texture some.

For other tasty perfect rice-based dishes try these:

• Jollof Rice
• Brisket Fried Rice
• Okra Fried Rice
• Coconut Ginger Rice
• Red Rice with Jumbo Shrimp

If you make this delicious black rice recipe please come back and leave me a comment below with your feedback. Definitely take a photo of the dish and be sure to tag #foodfidelity so that I can see them.

You can also keep up with my food exploits as well as original recipes! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you like any of the music you find on the site, visit me at Spotify to find curated monthly playlists.

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