Cold Rice Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Basil

This is a flavorful, cold salad with caprese flavors: mozzarella cheese, fresh basil leaves, and tomatoes. Cold Rice Salad is a unique and delicious dish for lunch or potlucks!

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There are many reasons to have a big crop of basil in your garden or a pot on the windowsill—this twist on a classic caprese salad is just one of them!

Cubed cheese on a wood board with a red knife and chopped bacon

A Cold Rice Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Basil is one of my favorite salad for summer parties. It packs so much flavor in one dish.

When shared at a cookout or family get-together, this colorful Rice Salad recipe stands out from the sea of ordinary pasta salads and pale potato salads.

Reader Review

"This is one of my go-to recipes now. It is delicious and so simple. Thank you so much!"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What is Rice Salad made of?

Depending on the recipe you choose, rice salads are beautifully varied. However they all have one thing in common—they're made with cooked, cooled rice. You can use white rice like in this recipe, or brown rice for a heartier, nutty flavor.

Cooled rice can be tossed with veggies, herbs, cheese, and meats to make a cold salad, along with some kind of dressing to tie the whole dish together.

My Rice Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Basil is irresisyable thanks to smoky bacon, ripe tomatoes, tender cubes of mozzarella, and fragrant, ambrosial basil.

Put that garden bounty to good use!

In New England, the summer season is so fleeting that it leaves its residents in a sort of three-month-long panic mode. There's a mad scramble to pack in vacations to the beach, camping trips, and car rides to see family far away. At home, every weekend there are food festivals and farmers's markets, barbecues and parades, fairs and ball games.

And of course, there are the gardens. There's nothing quite like the thrill that New England gardeners feel at the flush of jewel-tones in a well-organized flower garden, and the abundance of veggies in that patch of soil we've toiled over since spring.

Using or putting up all that fresh produce is a must—it's just too good (and we've worked too hard) to let it go to waste. That's especially true of garden tomatoes. We never plant just one tomato plant; it's likely a dozen or more. So we need all the recipes we can find to eat them up.

Rice Salad is an excellent way to enjoy those tomatoes, and a few snips of basil from the herb patch, too.

Why you'll love this recipe

A Cold Salad with Rice is a dish you can prepare for a casual lunch or to bring to a party or potluck. No matter who you serve it to, all your hungry friends will really love it.

The salad has a tantalizing play of flavors and textures—freshness from tomatoes and basil, creamy bites of mozzarella, salty and smoky pieces of bacon, and a light, vinegary tang from the dressing. Every bite of the salad is full of flavor, including the rice which is cooked with sautéed garlic.

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What's the best way to cook bacon?

I really like cooking it the oven. Some folks poohpooh this method, saying it's too much of a mess, but hey—no matter how you cook bacon, there's going to be some degree of greasy, splattery mess!

Laying strips of bacon on a rack in a baking sheet and baking them in the oven means you get to walk away and do something else for those 15-20 minutes, instead of standing over a hot frying pan. The strips cook to perfection and don't curl up. Plus, you can usually fit the whole package of bacon onto a large baking sheet, so it all gets cooked in one pass.

In summation, my two cents is that the oven is the best place to make bacon!

🔪 How to make Rice Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Basil

Rice, tomatoes, bacon, basil, mozzarella, garlic.

Ingredients in rice salad:

Jasmine rice: This is my go-to white rice choice. Jasmine rice cooks up quickly and is always perfectly tender.
Garlic: No jarred stuff here! This salad is all about fresh flavors, so mince fresh cloves of garlic.
Bacon: Use a good quality, smoked bacon—two brands I really like are Dakin Farms of Vermont and North Country Smokehouse of New Hampshire.
Tomatoes: I like Roma tomatoes because they have fewer seeds, but you can dice up any fresh tomato variety you like.
Basil: Use basil from your kitchen garden, or look for small plants at the garden center. Some grocery stores even have small herb plants in their produce sections.
Mozzarella: Pick up whole milk mozzarella and dice it into cubes.
Olive oil: I use extra virgin olive oil because it's the mildest tasting. And make sure it's not too old—if it smells weird like paint, it's rancid and should be replaced.
Vinegar: White vinegar combined with olive oil makes a simple vinaigrette for the rice salad.
Salt and pepper: Add a little and the taste the salad once it's assembled to see if more seasoning is needed.

Step 1- Make the rice: Sauté diced garlic in oil, then add in jasmine rice. Stir the rice in the hot oil for another minute, then add water and cover. Cook the rice until it's tender, then spread it out to let it cool.

Step 2-Prepare the tomatoes and basil: Dice the tomatoes. Roll the basil leaves up, then slice across to create thin strips. Combine the tomatoes and basil strips in a bowl with the diced bacon and cubed mozzarella cheese.

Mustard vinaigrette dressing in a measuring cup.

Step 3-Make the vinaigrette: Make a quick vinaigrette by shaking together some vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

White bowl holding rice, tomato and cheese cubes

Step 4-Build the rice salad: Stir everything together in a large bowl. Dig in!

Tips:

Jasmine is my favorite, everyday rice because it's delicious and cooks up so quickly. Feel free to use a different kind of rice in this salad, and follow the package directions for the time to cook it.
Cool the cooked rice quickly by spreading it into a thin layer (in a shallow dish or baking sheet) before placing it in the fridge. This is important to prevent any bacteria from developing.
I recommend choosing a good quality, smoked bacon. Find a local bacon producer if you can! It makes a difference to use a well-smoked bacon that you can really taste in every bite. I like Dakin Farms of Vermont and North Country Smokehouse of New Hampshire.

Rice salad with vegetables and a tomato nearby

FAQS

Can you eat rice cold in a salad?

Absolutely—just as you can make a salad with ingredients like pasta, grains, and potatoes, cooked and cooled rice makes a very tasty salad base. This recipe is proof of just how good rice salads are!

Which rice is best for a rice salad?

Jasmine rice is my preference, because it cooks quickly and separates nicely once cooked and cooled. You can also try other long grain rice varities, including brown rice. Avoid sticky rices as they won't have the same texture in this cold salad.

How long does rice salad last?

For the best flavor and texture, store Cold Rice Salad in the fridge, tightly covered for three to four days.

How do I make sure my rice is safe?

When warm, cooked rice is left at room temperature, it creates an environment where bacteria can breed. To prevent this, for this rice salad, chill the cooked rice in a thin layer in the fridge. This allows it to cool quickly and thoroughly. Also, keep the assembled rice salad cold, stored in the fridge. Plan to eat up any leftovers within three to four days of making the rice salad.

Glass bowl with cold salad of rice, tomatoes, and basil.

Alright, enough reading: it's time to make a tasty salad! Find the recipe for Cold Rice Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Basil below. Need even more salad ideas? You got it, baby!

💬 Tell me what you think of this deelish salad! Leave a comment below.

📖 Recipe