Black Beans & Rice – A High Protein “Go To” meal

 

So when I have no idea what to cook for lunch or dinner and I am not really feeling creative I always turn to my Black Bean’s & Rice !  I LOVE BLACK BEANS.  Not to mention a great source of fiber and very high in antioxidants.   I read that they are 10 times the amount of antioxidents of oranges and pretty equal to grapes and cranberries.  Black beans are so versatile they mesh great with most herbs and spices so it’s easy to switch up the recipes to keep it fresh for your family.  We have a lot of people now making out Black Bean Brownies which take that crazy chocolate craving you may have in a day and squash it.

Very important if you are buying your Black Beans in a can to ALWAYS check the sodium amounts.

 

I will tell you though that buying all your beans raw is much cheaper and healthier.  It’s simple all you have to do is soak them over night or before you go to work and by the time you get home they will be ready for you to cook with.

For Black beans and rice it’s pretty simple and you can use whatever veggies you like, this is my favourite combo.  Not much too it, I also always like to add sautéed leeks as a side to this dish.  They taste so good together with a little seat salt sprinkled on top. Yummm.

While your rice is cooking

Heat your pot up with a tsp. of coconut oil then add your shallots and garlic, let saute until translucent.

Add your peppers and black beans and keep mixing on med heat.

Add in any spice you like I usually stick to cumin, ground pepper sometimes a little curry.

As you start to smell the wonderful aromas add in 3/4 cup of veg stock and let the mixture cook until it evaporates. 

I like to mash some of the beans with the back of my spoon just to add to the texture, but still leaving half of them whole.  

Bring it down to low heat and let stand until rice is ready, add a little stock if it seems dry, you can’t hurt them. 😀

Saute some leeks with sea salt and black ground pepper.

Once it is all cooked place a pile of Rice on the plate and add your beans, leeks and any garnish you may like. Here I used radish but parsley or cilantro would be good also. 

That’s it,  a quick meal with room to have lots of left overs that you could eat the same way tomorrow or stuff a burrito or taco with or even turn it into a soup. 

Have fun with your cooking and don’t get to tense about sticking right to a recipe, get creative and change things up in your recipe routines.  If you have any great recipes you would love to share with us please post them here in our MOSU section.

Chevy.