1. Cook two cups of rice with appropriate amounts of salt and oil….or more or less rice  depending on how many you are feeding. Just adjust the amount of dressing you make accordingly. Pick a kind of rice that you like. Any rice will do but if you use Minute Rice, I don’t want to hear about it. I am quite partial to a mix of Lundberg fams wild rice blend with some Uncle Ben’s tossed for those who think brown rice is yucky. I’ve also mixed lentils and beans into the rice with very good results. I also cook the rice with about 1 tsp of curry powder per cup of uncooked rice. I am partial to Penzeys’ Maharajah Curry Powder for this recipe. I also like their garam masala for this recipe but if you use that do NOT cook it with the rice since it is best uncooked.

2. For the dressing mix together another tsp of curry powder per uncooked cup of rice (if you didn’t eat this at the diaconate potluck, then your version had a little more than that and I thought it was too much.) Add more or less to taste. I like things highly flavored so if you don’t, start with less. Then add approximately 1/2 cup oil, 1/3 cup white wine vinegar, and 1 tsp soy sauce for every two cups of uncooked rice that you started with. If you ate the diaconate potluck version of this, this following step is very important. Measure the soy sauce using the large refill bottle of soy sauce that you keep in the pantry and accidentally spill at least a quarter cup of soy sauce into the blender after you have measured out the requisite amount of soy sauce. It is cucial at this point that you say some spicy words to fully round out the flavor of the dressing and then resolve to change the name of the salad to Asian Rice Salad if anyone asks for a name. Combine the curry powder, oil, vinegar, and too much soy sauce (if you have followed the recipe exactly) pour over the rice and toss thoroughly.

3. At this point you may put the salad into the frig until you are ready to dress is for serving. This makes a particularly good lunch dish if you just scoop some into a bowl and then toss it with whatever looks good at the time., you can also serve it over mixed greens. What do you use to “dress” this….other than the above dressing? Whatever looks and sounds good to you.  Green onions and chives are a staple for me. Grapes work nicely and diced avocado is heavenly in this. Toss some cooked, diced chicken breast into it if you are looking for some protein but chopped hard boiled eggs, tofu, or black beans also work nicely. Other fruits/items that work, drained canned mandarin oranges (or fresh ones), dice pineapple of either the fresh or canned sort, raisins, currants, bananas, apples, olives, cheese, etc.