Hey everybody!
One of the most random dishes my Grandmother made is this rice and artichoke salad. It sounds bizarre, absolutely bizarre, but trust me, it's wonderful. The flavor is just so savory and mouth-watering and such a surprise.
I have no memory of my Grandmother making this salad, this was one of the recipes I came across in the stored records. According to her notes, she got it from a teacher friend.
I decided to make this for the cookbook when Ryan and I stayed at my parents lakehouse in Oklahoma as a side dish. The area in Oklahoma where the lakehouse is is extremely rural, like no McDonalds for 50 miles rural. The nearest grocery store (about 20 minutes away) burned down in 2019 so you either buy your groceries from a fancy (it's legit pretty nice) gas station or drive about an hour to go to a Walmart and buy them there. So Ryan and I bought the groceries for this as part of a massive grocery haul for our two-week stay. He was so confused about what we were making and what we were doing. I got a lot of "what, we're buying what? for a what?" who puts artichokes on rice and calls it a salad?
This salad, like a lot of the other food from my Grandmother's kitchen, is not pretty. You do not make these dishes to be pretty. You make them to eat until you have to roll away from the table. Just like the other recipes, you also do not eat this to be healthy. My Grandmother did not believe in healthy food, it seems, but then, what Grandmother truly believes in healthy food!
On to the good stuff!
When my grandmother made this recipe I have no idea what rice she used, the recipe just calls for chicken flavored rice, cooked. I found some from Uncle Ben's that came in a little package and was super easy to microwave (and obviously super healthy). There might be other alternatives, but the only time we've made this so far our selection was pretty limited. But I will give an A+++ rating to the Uncle Ben's.
To the rice mixture add the green onions and chopped bell peppers and mix.
Separate the artichoke hearts from the liquid, reserve the liquid. Add the hearts to the rice.
To make the sauce, mix the artichoke heart liquid, the mayonnaise and curry powder. Pour it over the mixture and stir well.
Let it chill for 2 hours prior to eating.
Enjoy!
RICE AND ARTICHOKE SALAD
SERVES: 8 | PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES | COOL TIME: 2 HOURS
2 packages of chicken flavored rice, cooked ¾ cup chopped green bell peppers 8 green onions, chopped
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts ¾ cup mayonnaise 1 tsp. curry
INSTRUCTIONS
Mix rice, onions, and peppers together. Drain artichoke hearts, reserve the liquid.
Add artichoke hearts to rice mixture.
Put the reserved liquid from the artichoke hearts into the ¾ cup mayonnaise and add 1 teaspoon curry. Whisk well and stir into rice mixture.
Chill at least two hours before serving.
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