Wild Rice & Grilled Chicken Salad

I love rice, and I love chicken, so I was quite intrigued when i came across this recipe. 

As I've mentioned before, I was never quite a fan of vegetables or salads and rarely considered eating them. However, after discovering that salads can actually be quite delicious with the right dressing and ingredients, I started to make these more often. 

Admittedly however, I don't really like dishing up the same salad over and over again. When I see a recipe for a salad I think I'd like I always give it a go by the book first. Then, the next time I make the salad I tweak it a little here and there according to my taste using the same basis but ending with a different result. They say change is good, and I agree. It's nice to not always take the same salad to work. At the end of the day I love food, and I'd hate to be bored of what I'm eating!

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Ingredients: 

- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp olive oil 
- ½ tsp balsamic vinegar 
- 1 small chicken breast
- 75 g mixed wild & long grain rice
- 1 red pepper, chopped 
- ½ onion, chopped 
- 50 g cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 50 g rocket leaves 
- 50 g goat's cheese, crumbled 

Dressing: 
- juice of ½ lemon 
- 1 tsp gluten free mustard
- 1 tsp honey 
- 1 tbsp olive oil 


Method: 

Mix the garlic, oil and vinegar together in a bowl and add the chicken and coat. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, cook the rice then let cool. In a small pan fry the onions and pepper (unless preferred raw) and let cool. Mix the peppers and onions with the rice and add the tomatoes, rocket and goat's cheese. 

Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a bowl and stir into the rice salad. 

Heat a griddle pan and cook the chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked through. Immediately before serving, slice the chicken and arrange on top of the salad.