Simple, Easy to Remember One Pot Rice & Beans Dinner w/ Variations for 2 (or 1 with Leftovers)

The first recipe is going to be one I think will be super useful to most of you. Rice and beans are going to be a staple over the next few weeks. This is the rice I like to make as a side or I'll add beans to make it a dinner. I adapted this from a Rick Bayless recipe for pilaf style rice. Mine is based off only using one cup of broth or stock at a time. You can double this recipe, however you would need about 1 ⅔ cups of stock. I know! Cooking rice is weird isn't it?

Ingredients:

• 1/2 small white or red onion. Roughly diced. No need for your best knife skills here.
  Keep it rustic. (you can use yellow but it will be sweeter.)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (2 if you really like garlic)
• 1/2 cup white rice. I use long grain because I always have it on hand.
• 1 cup chicken or veggie broth/stock. (if you are using a strong stock, dilute it a little) If I don’t have my own stock. I like to buy the 'Pacific' brand organic low sodium chicken broth that comes in the 1 cup containers 4 packs.
• 1 can beans, (pinto, black, kidney, or there are "chili beans" cans with all 3) rinsed. 
• Olive or vegetable oil. 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp
• Salt

Optional:

• Frozen veggies like peas, carrots and corn. 1 to 1 1/2 cups. Whatever amount looks good. 
• Hot sauce
• Salsa 
• Fresh parsley and/or cilantro. Chopped. About 2 to 3 Tbsp. Again, whatever amount looks good to you. 

Equipment:

A 4 to 6 qt pot that can go in the oven at 350 degrees.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 with the rack in the middle.
2. Rinse and dry the rice in a colander as much as you can.
3. Heat the oil over a medium heat (I usually do a touch higher than medium here) add the onion and cook just a bit to give it a head start. 30 secs to a min. I usually add a pinch of salt here.
4. Add in the rice and cook, stirring frequently until it goes from translucent to milky white. Make sure nothing browns.
5. Add the garlic and stir just a bit till fragrant.
6. Add in the broth, and bring to a hard simmer.
7. Add optional items if you want them (Excluding the fresh herbs)*, and salt to taste**. (see note about add ins and seasoning below)
8. Cover pot and place on the center rack of the oven and bake for 25mins.
9. Remove the pot from the oven with oven mitts (careful, HOT PAN!) and if you decided to add the beans now instead of earlier, add them to the top of the rice to steam. Re-cover the pot and let it finish cooking in it's own steam for 5 to 10 mins.
   (you could probably add some cooked chicken or shrimp here as well if you have it) 
10. Add chopped parsley, cilantro, or both if using.
11. Fluff and serve. 

*Now here’s where your variations can start. You can leave it as is and go to the next
step or you can do up some add-ins for more flavor.  You can add in a few dabs of hot
sauce. By a few, I mean a lot…  if you like the spicy. You could also add in a few
spoonfuls of your favorite salsa to taste. Or, both hot sauce and salsa. You know I do. Sometimes I add in a bit of the bean canning liquid for more bean-tastic flavor.

For the beans, you can do two things. You can add them in now. They will be a bit more blown out, but there will be a nice melding of flavors in the final dish. Or you can add them later to have a more intact beans that stand out a bit more. This would also be when you add in the frozen veggies. Bring everything back to a simmer before covering the pot and putting it in the oven.

**So, for seasoning everything. This is where you have to taste and use your better judgement. Let's say you picked a normal sodium broth. Then you also put in a few dabs of hot sauce and/or some salsa. Then your canned beans are also higher in sodium (rinsing helps)... that's already a good amount of salt in the whole dish. I find I don't have to add much at all even with low sodium products. If you are watching your sodium intake, then really pay attention to the salt content of your broth and beans when you purchase them and keep that all in mind. There are low sodium broths out there and if you look at the labels for the canned beans, the sodium content can be all over the place. There are a few brands that don't add salt. Worst case and you under season. You can always salt later. You can't really fix it if you over season.

-Patrick