Coconut Rice Salad is a light, flavorful rice salad mixing coconut rice, red bell pepper, edamame, cucumber, broccoli slaw, cilantro, green onion, peanuts and dressed in a flavor peanut style sauce. This salad is a great addition to meals as a side dish or could be served with grilled chicken, seafood or beef. 

COCONUT RICE SALAD

When I make meals throughout the week I like to have salads to serve each meal with. 

Today’s Coconut Rice Salad is a nice change from traditional green salads and is one my kids really like. 

I use rice in a lot of recipes in my house from this One Pot Mediterranean Chicken and Rice to Slow Cooker Cuban Pork Rice Bowls or this Curried Chicken and Rice Casserole. 

It mixes together coconut rice with fresh vegetables like edamame and bell peppers, adds in crunchy peanuts and fresh cilantro and then tosses the salad in a peanut style sauce. 

This rice salad pairs so nicely with a variety of meals whether it is a seafood meal like these Mediterranean Crab Cakes or beef like these Beef Bulgogi with Zucchini Noodles or these Air Fryer Tandoori Chicken Legs. 

Not only is this salad nice for weeknight meals or lunches it also is a fun dish to bring to a party or backyard BBQ.

You can easily double the recipe and the leftovers hold up nicely! 

WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS COCONUT RICE SALAD?

LIGHT AND FLAVORFUL: This rice salad is so light but packed with flavors. It is the perfect side dish for a family. You will love the coconut rice paired with fresh vegetables, cilantro and mixed in with a peanut style sauce. This is one of my favorite rice salad recipes. 

EASY TO MAKE: Coconut Rice Salad is easy to make and you can save time by preparing the coconut rice ahead of time and cutting and dicing your vegetables ahead of time. If you have leftover rice this would be a great use for that and you could make it without the coconut flavor or just stir in a small amount of the coconut milk to the rice and reheat. 

PERFECT FOR MEAL-PREP:  When I meal prep on weekends I will often make this rice salad so I have it throughout the week and pair with a variety of dinners or eat it at lunch with this Honey Garlic Sriracha Shrimp or this Air Fryer Salmon.

A SALAD YOU CAN EASILY MODIFY: I love salads I can easily modify depending on what I have in my fridge. This is that kind of salad- you can modify the vegetables, add a different nut or dressing.

INGREDIENTS AND SUBSTITUTIONS

RICE: I used jasmine rice for this salad but you could use brown rice, brown basmati, long grain rice or white rice.

COCONUT MILK: The rice is cooked in coconut milk to infuse that coconut flavor into the rice. 

VEGETABLE BROTH: I added vegetable broth to the rice when cooking it to give it additional flavor with the coconut milk. You could use any broth you like or water in its place. 

VEGETABLES: This salad mixes fresh vegetables with the rice. I used red peppers, edamame, cucumber, a bag of broccoli slaw and red onion. Other vegetables that would be a nice addition are broccoli, green beans, carrots, peas or cauliflower. 

CILANTRO: I love mixing in fresh cilantro but any fresh herbs will work like fresh basil or fresh parsley. 

GREEN ONIONS

NUTS AND SEEDS: Peanuts or cashews add that extra crunch to the rice salad but you can skip them if you don’t want to add them in. Other options you can add are chopped almonds or sesame seeds.

FOR THE DRESSING:

NUT BUTTER: The peanut style sauce uses peanut butter or almond butter but you can also use sun butter. 

SWEET CHILI SAUCE

FRESH GINGER

SAMBAL OLEK

RICE VINEGAR

SOY SAUCE

CHILI FLAKES

HOW TO MAKE THIS COCONUT RICE SALAD:

HOW TO COOK THE RICE IN THE INSTANT POT: Combine the rice, coconut milk, vegetable broth, garlic, and sea salt in the Instant Pot. Cover and set to the rice function. Manual release when the time has elapsed. Let the rice come to room temperature. 

HOW TO COOK THE RICE ON THE STOVE: In a medium-sized cooking pot or in a mixing bowl, rinse the jasmine rice in several changes of cold water until the water runs clear.

Drain any excess water in a large fine-mesh sieve and place the rice back into the cooking pot. Add coconut milk, vegetable broth and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to low and cook covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook for 5 minutes.

Fluff the rice with a fork scraping up the crispy bits from the bottom of the pot and set aside to cool completely.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients, set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the cooled rice and fillings. Toss to combine and serve with the satay sauce.

WHAT TO SERVE THIS RICE SALAD WITH?

AIR FRYER COD

BLACK SEA BASS

SPICY RAMEN NOODLE RECIPE

SLOW COOKER SHOULDER PORK ROAST

BAKED COD WITH LEMON

GRILLED FLANK STEAK WITH DRY RUB