Greek Salad Rice Bowls

It’s garden harvest time, and many people are looking for ways to use their overabundance of tomatoes and cucumbers. Even if you don’t have a garden, summer vegetables are at their peak and are cheap to buy right now. It’s a great time to make lots of salads!

There is a restaurant called Tatziki’s that makes delicious mediteranean food. Their lemon rice, falafel, greek salad, hummus, you name it— it is all SO delicious! I’ve been craving it lately and thus created this quick rice bowl. If you want to make the rice just like Tatziki’s, you’d use white basmati rice and add a pat of butter and some lemon juice with salt and pepper. You’d probably also add some olive oil to the hummus to make it extra- rich and some olive oil to the greek salad. But you know what, you don’t need to! This version is still delicious and you save hundreds of empty calories by skipping all that butter and oil.

If you use pre-cooked rice and pre-made or store-bought hummus, this meal comes together very quickly. If you’d like to make your own hummus, the recipe I always use now is from Cookie and Kate. It doesn’t need any oil and is just perfect! I don’t take the time to over-boil the garbanzo beans, and it’s still great. Here is the recipe: Best Hummus from Cookie and Kate. 

If you’re wondering what pepperonicinis are, they are the little pickled peppers you find on Olive Garden’s salads. You can buy them in a jar in the pickles section of your grocery store. They add a delicious tangy element to this salad bowl and are just fun to keep on hand for adding to salads.

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Greek Salad Rice Bowls

Prep Time

25 mins

 

A very simple meal made just by combining a quick greek salad with rice and hummus.

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 1 lemon
• 2 cucumbers
• 2 large tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper (optional)
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsely
• 1 cup your favorite hummus
• pepperoncinis, if desired (pickled greek peppers like what you'd see on Olive Garden salads)

Instructions

1. Make lemon rice by squeezing lemon over rice and stirring together. Add salt to taste if desired.

2. Make simple greek salad by cutting cucumbers and tomatoes into small cubes and dice the onion and bell pepper. Chop cilantro and toss all together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Make the hummus or use store-bought. Add a few tablespoons of water and stir to make a thinner hummus so it is more salad-dressing-like.

4. In a bowl, layer rice with greek salad and drizzle hummus on top. Garnish with chopped pepperoncinis and additional cilantro or parsley.