Part of what makes a great salad, or arguably any dish for that matter, so appetizing is the perfect combination of flavor and texture to elevate your sensory experience while eating.
When you combine those factors with an undeniably easy to manage ingredient list that can be adapted or scaled to your personal palate preferences, you've got a recipe for viral success.
Enter, crispy rice salad -- the latest food craze to fill social media feeds that's amassed 32.1 million posts on TikTok with millions more likes and views on Instagram as well from hundreds of home cooks who are trying their hand at the simple, yet seemingly elevated dish.
KaleJunkie creator Nicole Keshishian Modic is one of many successful food creators who has long followed this format when creating and testing recipes for mass appeal: use a minimal number of ingredients, that most home cooks would likely already have on hand and can be easily swapped for preferred flavors, spices or sizes, to make a bold, flavorful meal with very minimal effort.
She said her version of the now-viral crispy rice salad with a homemade lemon tahini dressing, "takes the cake as one of the best recipes I have created in 2024."
Best selling cookbook author and PlantYou creator Carleigh Bodrug also tested out the hit salad recipe, telling "Good Morning America" that "as a plant-based eater, the crispy rice provides an almost bacon bit effect in a salad, especially when baked in a smokey soy based sauce."
"We've all been guilty of making too much rice, and the Crispy Rice Salad trend is the absolute perfect way to reduce food waste while enjoying leftover rice in a delicious, new and innovative way. I love the texture and bulk it adds to a regular salad, transforming it from a side dish to a meal."
Crispy rice cucumber salad with lemon tahini dressing
"Omg perhaps this is one of my best combos of 2024, which is saying a lot! I have been seeing crispy rice salads floating around and as a gal that loves maximum crunch and texture, I had to create my own version. It is a WINNER," Modic wrote in the caption of her recipe video on Instagram. "A party in your mouth that will have you swooning over this one and making it on repeat."
Makes 4 large servings or 6 smaller
Crispy Rice
2 cups cooked rice, cooled (I used jasmine rice)
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tb chili crisp/crunch (Trader Joe’s makes a good one, I used Momofuku this time!)
1 tb sesame oil
Salad
5 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced (or 1 large English cucumber)
1 cup edamame, shelled
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced (3/4 cup)
1 bunch fresh mint, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 avocados, chopped
1 cup salted peanuts, finely chopped
Lemon Tahini Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice (this is 1-2 lemons)
3 tb tahini
1 1/2 tb maple syrup
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
Directions
First, prepare the crispy rice topping.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Add cooked and cooled rice to the baking sheet. Toss well with the soy sauce, chili crisp and sesame oil. Bake for 30-40 minutes, tossing half way through. Remove from the oven once the rice is crispy and set aside.
Next, chop/slice all of the ingredients for the salad and add to a large bowl.
Last, make the dressing. Whisk to together all of the ingredients for the dressing. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Pour dressing over the salad.
Add the crispy rice last, toss and enjoy!
Modic has also iterated on her initial version above with two more flavor combinations -- a Thai-inspired steak salad and a salmon crunch salad with creamy lemon-cumin dressing.
Warm kale and crispy rice salad with tahini Caesar dressing
@plantyou Crispy Rice Salad #recipe #plantbased #salad ♬ This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) - Natalie Cole
Check out Bodrug's full recipe, plus more tips here.
