Recipes
Pickled Mushroom and Miso Brown Rice Salad
This month, Tasting Table celebrates all things salad. Keep your cool with us.
Testing recipes is heavy-duty work, and there's no better way to regain strength than with a satisfying, crunchy, wholesome salad—the key word here being "satisfying." We took notes from healthy mini chain Sweetgreen (confession: We eat there on the regular) and tossed the veggies and brown rice in a miso-ginger vinaigrette to add oomph. Pickled beech mushrooms add texture and briny flavor, making this salad one we could eat—and feel satisfied by—every day.
Pickled Mushroom and Miso Brown Rice Salad
Recipe from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen
Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes, plus chilling time
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes, plus chilling time
Ingredients
For the Pickled Beech Mushrooms:
1½ cups water
⅔ cup white wine vinegar
¼ cup honey
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 star anise pod
7 ounces beech mushroom, root trimmed (3 cups)
For the Dressing:
¼ cup white miso
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
¾ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
For the Salad:
3 cups roughly chopped kale
4 cups cooked short grain brown rice, cooked according to package instructions
1 cup julienned carrots
1½ cups pickled beech mushrooms
4 black mission figs, halved and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon toasted black sesame seeds
Directions
1. Make the pickled mushrooms: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the water, vinegar, honey, salt, black peppercorns and star anise. Bring to a boil. Add the mushrooms and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until the mushrooms are barely tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature. Chill, covered, for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. Makes 1½ cups.
2. Make the miso-ginger dressing: In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. Makes about ½ cup.
3. Assemble the salad: In a large serving bowl, massage the kale with 2 tablespoons of the dressing and combine with the rice. Add the matchstick carrots along with 3 tablespoons of the dressing and mix together. Top with the pickled mushrooms and fig slices, then garnish with the black sesame seeds and serve.
