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Healthy and delicious vegan recipes using no salt, sugar or oil.

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Rice Salad with Asparagus & Shiitake Mushrooms

March 28, 2018 23 Comments

I call this a salad but it could also be a side dish. The bottom line is that it is de-lic-ious! Made of brown rice, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, green peas, green onions, pecans, and one of my favorite fresh herbs, tarragon. Great texture and flavor, with a light dressing of lemon juice, mustard and garlic. This is one everyone will love!

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Rice Salad with Asparagus and Shiitake Mushrooms
Prep time:  20 mins
Cook time:  55 mins
Total time:  1 hour 15 mins
Serves: 4 to 8 (makes about 7 cups)
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup long-grain brown rice
  • 2½ cups sliced shiitake mushrooms
  • 2 cups asparagus, ends trimmed (and discarded), then chopped into 1-inch lengths
  • 2 cups green peas (thawed if frozen)
  • 3 large green onions, white and green parts chopped (about ½ cup)
  • ¼ cup pecan halves, chopped (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon

  • Dressing:
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon mustard (I like Dijon or stoneground)
  • 1 medium clove garlic
Instructions
  1. Bring the water and rice to a boil in a soup pot over high heat, uncovered. Reduce the heat to low, then cover and simmer for 45 minutes. After cooking, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes with the lid on, then fluff the rice.
  2. Toward the end of the rice cooking (or during cooling), add 1 tablespoon of water to a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the water starts to sputter, add the mushrooms and asparagus, and cook while stirring for about 5 minutes, adding a little water as needed, until the asparagus is tender (but not over-cooked). Remove from heat.
  3. Add to the pot of rice: the cooked mushrooms and asparagus, the peas, green onions, chopped pecans (if using), and tarragon.
  4. Blend the dressing ingredients (lemon juice, mustard, and garlic) in a small blender, and stir into the pot of rice and vegetables. I like to serve this warm, but it can be served cold as well. Garnish if desired with a bit more chopped pecans.
Notes
Mushrooms: I think shiitake mushrooms pair nicely with asparagus, but feel free to use other types as well (oyster, cremini, white).

Fresh herbs: Likewise, I think tarragon goes really well with mushrooms and asparagus, but fresh dill or parsley would work too.

Mustard: If you don’t like mustard, just leave it out; it will still taste great.

To save time, cook the rice the morning of or day before.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 cup (1/8 recipe) Calories: 160 Fat: 3.7g Saturated fat: 0.4g Carbohydrates: 27.6g Sugar: 3.6g Sodium: 78.4mg Fiber: 4.4g Protein: 5.5g Cholesterol: 0
3.5.3226

If you make this recipe and enjoy it, please share a comment below or on my Facebook page. If you’d like to print this recipe, use the green “Print” button near the top-right of the recipe. Learn more about the Straight Up Food Cookbook here. Thank you! 

 

Filed Under: Holiday Dishes, Salads, Side Dishes Tagged With: asparagus, green onion, mushrooms, peas, pecans, rice salad, tarragon

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Comments

  1. Kevin M. says

    March 31, 2018 at 6:44 pm

    I tried the Rice salad with asparagus and Shiitake mushrooms and found it delicious. Couldn’t find fresh tarragon in the store so I substituted dried. I had the nut-free version. The simple Dijon mustard dressing really blended well with the vegetables. I’ll be keeping this one on my menu. Thanks for the great dinner.

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      March 31, 2018 at 9:01 pm

      So glad you liked it Kevin! Thanks for the comment. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Beckie Moon says

    April 5, 2018 at 10:30 am

    loved it, thank you

    Reply
  3. Howard Bielich says

    April 13, 2018 at 2:23 am

    I only had cremini and white mushrooms, so used them instead of shiitake. I also added someTrader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. It was very good! Thanks for another great recipe.

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      April 13, 2018 at 5:13 pm

      Yay! 🙂 Thanks Howard!

      Reply
  4. Liv says

    April 20, 2018 at 6:49 am

    Yum! I made this and subbed the tarragon for lemon thyme. Still turned out great. I love the idea of dressing on a warm dish. It definitely jazzed up the rice.

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      April 20, 2018 at 12:46 pm

      Thanks Live! 😉

      Reply
  5. Regina Varos says

    April 26, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    I made this for dinner tonight. Let’s just say success

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      April 27, 2018 at 9:51 am

      Thanks Regina! 😉

      Reply
  6. Isadora Guidoni says

    May 11, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    This recipe is delicious! I ended up using red onions instead, but it was great anyways.

    Reply
  7. Laura says

    May 14, 2018 at 12:35 pm

    Love this – five stars! I love how simple it is and how I can switch up veggies and add in some other favorites (tempeh or tofu cubes, hummus!, beans, etc). I left out the tarragon and subbed in sugar snap peas for the asparagus (not a fan of tarragon or asparagus), served it over baby arugula, and added a big scoop of hummus on top yesterday and today. Leftovers are keeping well. Thank you!

    Reply
  8. Yvonne says

    May 30, 2018 at 5:57 pm

    I truly want to thank you for making my transition to a plant based diet a lot easier! Made this tonight and it was so yummy. Husband loved it as well. Also, it was quick and easy (I used Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice)! Only addition was a couple slices of avocado.

    Reply
  9. Cindy Lou says

    June 6, 2018 at 9:13 am

    I love your recipes but as a diabetic, we need full nutritional information with fat, carbs and serving size. I would appreciate that so much and so would my 50,000 support group members!

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      June 6, 2018 at 8:39 pm

      Hi Cindy, thank you for your comment. All the recipes have this nutritional information; apparently I just forgot to add it to this most recent recipe. Thanks for alerting me! I will fix it. 😉

      Reply
  10. Alice says

    June 29, 2018 at 1:29 pm

    I made Rice Salad with Asparagus and Shiitake Mushrooms, and my husband and daughter both liked it 😋

    I’m thankful to serve it warm, and that it’s simple to make extra for next day.

    The tarragon flavour combination is a gift. It’s a pleasure to serve tasty food without salt, sugar and oil.

    Thank you for the photograph looking appetising in a blue bowl, I appreciate this serving suggestion.

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      July 2, 2018 at 10:57 pm

      Thank you so much, Alice. 🙂

      Reply
    • Sharon says

      July 11, 2018 at 8:40 pm

      I was thinking that this might be good warm, too … it really looks good!

      Reply
      • Cathy says

        July 13, 2018 at 11:35 am

        I prefer it warm; plus, warm rice is better than cold. 🙂

        Reply
  11. Sage says

    August 24, 2018 at 5:06 am

    🤗Hi! I love you & love your food! Thank you! Hey a lot of the words are cut off on the right side only. I am looking at your blog on an IPhone through Instagram. Hoping you can fix this please! My fave dish of yours is the tuNO salad & cant wait to try this! ❤️

    Reply
  12. Polly says

    October 18, 2018 at 8:13 pm

    I keep picturing filling this recipe into an acorn squash and baking this. Of course the acorn squash would be cut in 1/2 and both filled.
    I would like to ask if the rice recipe (for filling) would or should be cooked (baked) at the same time as when the acorn squash is baked?
    And at what temperature and for how long?
    Thank you.
    Polly

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      October 19, 2018 at 8:53 am

      You mean inside the acorn squash, from uncooked rice? That wouldn’t work; you need to cook the rice separately in water, as it’s very hard. 🙂

      Reply
  13. Rachel says

    January 29, 2019 at 11:20 am

    I really enjoyed this recipe. I served it with a spinach salad. I didn’t have asparagus so I used steamed broccoli instead. Thank you for sharing!!

    Reply
    • Cathy says

      January 29, 2019 at 7:00 pm

      Mmm! Thanks Rachel! 😉

      Reply

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Welcome to Straight Up Food! I’m Cathy Fisher, a chef and teacher whose passion is creating recipes without animal foods, salt, oil or sugar, and very few processed foods. Eating a whole-foods diet dramatically improves the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the environment—there are no downsides, only benefits! For more information about this blog and my work, click here. Thank you!

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