Herbed brown rice salad with feta and beetroot

There are ping-pong balls secreted away under every bed, chair, cupboard and couch in my house. Do I have a fetish? No, I have a cat. Which means soccer games at odd times, day and night, up and down the passage. The floors are wooden. The racket is frightful. The excitement is fever pitch.

I can identify with this kind of excitement. Not over ping-pong balls of course, that would be weird. Over food, because the thought of playing with new recipes makes me just a little bit moggy. And so it was when Spekko gave me a hamper of their rice to play with. Jasmin rice, Basmati rice, Saman white rice. Ooh boy.

First up though, Spekko’s brown rice. My initial thinking for this started in the tabbouleh space. Something packed with tomatoes and herbs, but instead of the traditional bulgur wheat, I’d use rice. A fine idea to be sure, but a bit predictable. So I kept the herbs but nixed the rest, adding feta and raw beetroot instead. A few pomegranate rubies and figs go on too and I dress the lot with a tangy olive oil and lemon vinaigrette with chilli cheek. Add some edible flowers and you have yourself a gorgeous girlie-pretty salad with a wicked flavour punch.