Brown Rice Salad
on Jun 26, 2018, Updated Jul 16, 2025
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This vibrant Brown Rice Salad is packed with fresh vegetables, herbs, and a zippy vinaigrette — a perfect make-ahead dish for lunches, potlucks, or light dinners. It’s hearty, healthy, and endlessly flexible based on what’s in your fridge.
There’s something kind of magical about a salad that holds up for different tastes, tastes better the longer it sits, and makes you feel like a meal-planning genius. That’s all packed into this Brown Rice Salad recipe. It’s a fresh, colorful mix of chewy brown rice, crunchy vegetables, and bright herbs all tossed with a simple lemon vinaigrette that brings it together in the most satisfying way. It’s the kind of salad that works just as well on a picnic table as it does in a lunchbox — and it’s flexible enough to welcome whatever produce you have on hand.
This healthy brown rice salad filled with colorful vegetables is the vegetarian side dish you’ve been looking for! Perfect for when you’re hosting a crowd or asked to bring something to a potluck. It’s so easy to make, vegetarian, economical, portable, gluten-free, flexible, and really, really pretty. This is a great way to get more whole-grain brown rice into your meals in the most appealing way!
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It sidles up nicely to anything from Grilled Chicken Kebabs with Vegetables to New York Strip Steak with Jalapeño Butter to Grilled Peaches with Burrata.
What's In This Post?
This brown rice salad recipe is the vegetarian side dish you’re always looking for when you’re hosting a crowd or going to a potluck.
Ingredients
- Long-grain brown rice – Make sure to cook this ahead of time (up to 4 days), and that it’s cooled before making the salad. Try any brown rice variety in this salad, such as plain brown rice, brown basmati, or brown jasmine rice.
- Carrots – Shredded carrots add lovely color and nice texture to the salad.
- Cucumber – Either use seedless cucumbers or make sure to scrape out the seeds before dicing them so the salad doesn’t become watery.
- Onion – Use any color of onion you like; adds a nice bite to the salad.
- Radishes – Slice as thinly as you can; adds crunch and color.
- Celery – More fresh crunch.
- Italian parsley leaves and fresh thyme leaves – Adds a lovely herbal note.
Honey-Lemon Dressing
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Lemon juice – Use fresh if you can.
- Honey – You can use agave nectar instead if you want this to be a vegan salad.
- White wine vinegar – Feel free to sub in any kind of vinegar.
- Dijon mustard – Adds zing to the dressing.
- Garlic – Use fresh garlic, and make sure it’s finely chopped so it blends into the dressing.
How to Make Brown Rice Salad
- Make the salad: In a large bowl, combine the brown rice, carrots, cucumber, onion, radishes, celery, parsley, and thyme.
- Make the dressing: In a small container, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Combine the salad: Toss dressing with brown rice salad, and serve at room temperature.
Variations and Substitutions
- Use agave instead of the honey for a vegan brown rice salad.
- Play around with the vegetables! Just make sure to slice them thinly or cut them into small dice, so they blend in with the rice easily, and the salad can be scooped up with a fork. Try summer squash, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, lightly cooked and chopped broccoli, or sliced asparagus. I also would love to see some chopped-up grilled peaches in this salad for a little smoky sweetness!
- Use your favorite vinaigrette, or try Honey Mustard Dressing, or this Sesame Honey Dressing, or Spicy Honey Tahini Dressing for a different twist.
What to Serve With Brown Rice Salad
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Brown Rice Salad (Make-Ahead Friendly)
Ingredients
For the Brown Rice and Vegetable Salad
- 4 cups cooked and cooled long-grain brown rice
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup diced seedless cucumber
- ½ cup chopped red or yellow onion
- 1 cup thinly sliced radishes
- ½ cup thinly sliced celery
- ¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
For the Honey-Lemon Dressing
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 clove finely minced garlic
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- For the salad, in a large bowl, combine the brown rice, carrots, cucumber, onion, radishes, celery, parsley, and thyme.
- For the dressing, in a small container, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Pour the dressing over the brown rice salad, toss to combine very well, turn into a serving platter, and serve at room temperature.
Notes
- There are a number of brown rice varieties easily available these days, from brown basmati to brown jasmine, and of course, plain regular brown rice works out just perfectly.
- Try other grains in place of the rice, such as quinoa, bulgur, farro, or wheat berries. Farro and wheat berries are denser, so use 2 cups of those grains instead of the 4 cups of rice.
- Play around with the vegetables! Just make sure to slice them thinly or cut them into small dice, so they blend in with the rice easily, and the salad can be scooped up with a fork. Try summer squash, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, lightly cooked chopped broccoli, or sliced asparagus.
- Try other vinaigrette recipes instead of the honey lemon dressing below. Consider Honey Mustard Dressing, this Sesame Honey Dressing, or Spicy Honey Tahini Dressing for a different twist.
Nutrition
What to Know About Making Brown Rice Salad
Brown rice is a very healthy grain, and all of the vegetables are very healthy as well. The light dressing doesn’t add much by way of calories or fat, so all in all, this is a very healthy salad.
Just about anything! Use what you have: chopped bell peppers, shredded carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, scallions (green onions), fresh herbs like parsley or dill, and even beans or chickpeas (garbanzos) for extra protein
Yes — in fact, it’s even better after it sits for a bit. The rice soaks up the zingy vinaigrette, and the flavors meld. It keeps well in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Absolutely, quinoa, farro, barley, or even wild rice would work beautifully.
It’s usually served chilled or at room temperature, which makes it a perfect option for meal-prep, picnics, potlucks, and buffets.
A tangy vinaigrette made with olive oil, vinegar (like red wine or apple cider vinegar), Dijon mustard, and a bit of garlic or shallot is perfect. It keeps the salad light but still flavorful.
More Grain Salad Recipes
And if you are as besotted by the notion of grain salads as I am, here are a few more to consider.
I made this exactly as written and we found it delicious!
Thanks for a great recipe which will be a regular with us.
found it a bit bitter in the dressing
Dressing a little bitter
Loved this and added wild rice, soaked currants and toasted almond slivers. I had a separate green salad so didn’t put in all the veggies. Added some ground cumin and fresh coriander in the dressing. Very nice!
Delicious, changed up a few ingredients, don’t like radishes. Added some fresh kale. Really good and my husband loved it!
how many servings does it make?
10! The yield is right under the subtitle, but a little small….
Can you break it down into cups? Is the nutritional information per serving?
the serving size should be about 3/4 cup per person!
Can rice salad, be made the day before and kept in fridge Thank you
yes!
Made this last night for book club and it was a hit! thank you
Awesome! It’s a good make-for-a-crowd dish!
looks amazing! Exactly what I was looking for. I will let you know how it goes!!
awesome, please do!