This quick and easy Rainbow Rice recipe is a versatile main or side dish on a base of probiotic yoghurt. Based on the concept of a Rainbow Diet, this 20min recipe can help begin your nutritional journey by making your dishes more vibrant and vitamin-fuelled. 

What is a Rainbow Diet?

The Rainbow Diet or Rainbow Plate is a health-inspired food trend that can help us to eat a diverse range of fruits and vegetables that represent all the colours of the rainbow, ensuring that you get a variety of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. 

Whilst I subscribe to the concept of Rainbow Plates, I don’t like the term “diet”. Diets can often mean sudden and temporary changes in our eating habits that can have a negative effect on our relationship with food, our health and how we place value in ourselves. 

So this Rainbow Plate idea is a great alternative to going on a diet, as it gives us the freedom to find out which healthy foods we actually enjoy. 

If cooking and preparing foods are tasks that don’t come easily to you, you could start with just adding one food of a different colour each day of the week e.g. if Monday is for red foods, then have a snack of strawberries, or add some chopped red pepper to one of your usual dishes and see if you like it. That way you can explore some fruits and vegetables that you may have not tried in a while, if ever. 

The Recipe:

Preparation time: can be 20 mins or 40 mins depending on whether you are using microwave-ready rice, quinoa or lentils or cooking them from scratch.

Ingredients (serves 2)

6 finely chopped radishes

1 red pepper diced

1 yellow pepper diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed

4 spring onions roughly chopped

1 avocado pitted and cubed

2-3 teaspoons of oregano/mixed herbs

4-6 tablespoons of natural live culture greek/vegan yoghurt

1 portion of whole-grain rice 

1 portion of red/white quinoa or lentils

A sprinkle of seeds and mixed nuts

Method

1. Start by preparing your wholegrain rice and quinoa/lentils as per their cooking instructions. This might take anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes, depending on whether you are cooking your rice and lentils in the microwave in sachets or on the stove.
2. To make your rainbow mixture: combine the radishes, peppers, garlic, onions and herbs in an oiled frying pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium-high heat until softened/lightly browned.
3. When cooked, on low heat mix your rice and lentils/quinoa together with your rainbow mixture in the frying pan and adjust seasoning to taste.
4. When ready to serve, prepare your portions with 2-3 tablespoons of your preferred probiotic yoghurt spread on the plate as a base. Then scoop your rainbow rice on top.
5. Sprinkle your desired amount of seeds and nuts, and don’t forget to add half an avocado to each plate!

You can accompany this beautiful and delicious rice with a source of protein such as a herb-crusted chicken breast with feta, a chilli and lemon salmon (pescatarian), or some crumbled smoked tofu and sun-dried tomatoes (vegan).

As a psychotherapist who is active and busy, I always seek fun, colourful and tasty foods that I know will nourish me throughout the day. And if you are looking for more easy and nutritious recipes, check out this 20min Vegan Burrito bowl.

Camille Trueman is an Integrative Psychotherapist (GMBPsS, BACP, UKCP) at The RESET Health Group with over 10 years of experience in mental health.