Tonight we had Black Beans and Rice. I’ve been looking for a good beans and rice recipe for a while, and ended up trying this one from Allrecipes.com. Here’s the picture from their website:
Ours didn’t exactly look like this, partially because (as usual) I made some substitutions. Part of what I like best about Allrecipes.com is being able to look at detailed ratings where people usually give suggestions about how they doctored the recipes to make them better. This recipe was no exception. Here’s what the recipe looked like when I finished with it:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1.5 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 cup uncooked brown basmati rice
- 2 1/4 cups fat free chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 x 15oz. cans black beans, drained (not rinsed)
- 2 x 15oz. cans pinto beans, drained (not rinsed)
- 1 x 10oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
- Approx. 2 good squeezes of bottled lime juice
- Salt (to taste)
I cooked the rice/onion/garlic/broth mixture for 45 minutes because that’s what the directions on the brown rice called for (this is also how I came up with the modified amount on the broth).
It was very easy (very hands off) and turned out really well, but it was too spicy for Liam (he did eat two bites, after he learned that we were serious about him trying it if he wanted anything else for dinner — I guess boycotting lunch makes a boy hungry after all…). It remains to be seen if we’re hungry in two hours after eating it as a main dish, but I think it would definitely make a filling lunch. This was not exactly an adventurous meal, but a good first attempt at beans and rice to be sure. I’d still love to experiment with more new recipes in the future.