Pseudo-Mexican Spicy Rice and Beans

One night last week I was feeling hungry, but not in the mood for anything heavy like meat or cheese. Instead, I decided I would make something up from scratch. This is completely from my imagination! I had a little bit of Mexican inspiration, since I had quesadillas earlier that day for lunch. What else could I make with beans and jalapenos that didn't involve so much cheese?  I had some rice in the pantry, and some bell peppers in the fridge, mix them together with the beans and jalapenos and voila!

Actually there are more ingredients than that... Let me tell you how I made this delicious dish, and then ate all of it! 

Supplies:

medium size pot (just make sure the pot is big enough to cook a cup of rice) 

and lid, preferably one that fits 

10" frying pan (Alternatively, you can use a bigger pan, a smaller one and do it in batches, a pot, whatever you have, as long as food isn't flying out all over the place and catching fire on your stove and burning your building down.)

spoon to stir the rice, I used a wooden one but it really doesn't matter. 

flat wooden spatula for frying veggies and mixing everything

cutting board and knife Please be safe. 

yup i think that's it... Oh wait...

A stove (That's important. This recipe uses two burners.)

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked rice - I like Minute brown rice, but you can use whatever you want. My cooking instructions below are for minute rice. If you use a different kind, please, please follow the instructions on your box or bag. 

1 cup water or broth - Used to cook the rice. I like chicken broth, but once again, use what you have and like

1 small onion, roughly chopped - I cut mine into half petals to try something new, but if you don't like onion or don't like that much, use less or chop it more finely. 

1/3 each of one red bell pepper, one orange, and one yellow - I just used one section of pepper from each one. I like the variety. I cut them into long strips for visual interest. 

A small dollop of butter or olive oil, for sauteing the veggies. 

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

~2 tbsp chopped picked jalapenos You know, the ones in jars. 

~2-3 tbsp black beans The canned kind. 

salt, seasoned salt, pepper, cumin, to taste

Instructions:

So first you want to get the rice started, because you don't want to be waiting on it later and burn your veggies. Plus rice can wait if it's done early. So put your water or broth in the pot and turn the stove on high and now you just have to wait for it to boil. During this time, you should start cutting your vegetables (onion first, then peppers). Depending on how much experience you have in the kitchen, this could take a while. 

When the pot comes to a boil stir in the rice, reduce heat to low, and cover. In five minutes, remove from heat and stir, replace lid and let it sit (with no heat!) for another five minutes. You can just leave it like this until you're ready to mix everything. 

While the rice is cooking, get out your frying pan and turn the heat onto a medium low and melt a pat of butter, or use your olive oil or whatever. Time to cook some onions! So hopefully your onion is cut up by now, if not, finish that up. Then just dump all the pieces into the frying pan and stir them around in whatever fatty liquid is in there so they're evenly coated. Stir them around every so often when it gets sizzly so they cook evenly. 

This is when I got around to cutting my peppers. If you're not done with yours and know you're slow, you can turn down the heat on the onions so they don't overcook. Alternatively, if you're a fast chopper and all your peppers are ready, I'd wait to put them in, until the onions are starting to look a little clearer. It all depends on how big you cut them. But as long as you don't burn anything, you're golden. 

Once your onions and peppers are sizzling away nicely, and your rice is done or nearly so, it's time to add in the garlic. Take one clove, peel off all the papery stuff, and either chop it into really tiny pieces or put it through the garlic press. I chopped mine, mostly because I didn't feel like washing an extra dish. So put in the garlic and stir it around evenly. Then get out your jalapenos, about two or three spoonfuls from the jar. (I never really measure. Just do what you think will taste good.) Chop 'em up as big or as little as you like, then toss 'em into the veggie mix. The juice may make a sizzling sound. 

At this point, I added my spices. Some salt and pepper and cumin in with the veggies, and some seasoned salt for the rice. 

Pour the cooked rice into the frying pan and mix everything around. Get out your black beans and put a few spoonfuls into your dinner, and mix those around too. Voila! You're all done! 

Now go sit in your room and eat the whole thing while watching Netflix, then regret it later when you're too full to move! 

Enjoy! 

Alternatives: 

You can make this dish completely vegetarian or vegan, and it's naturally gluten-free because rice. The chicken broth can be switched to vegetable broth or water. The butter can be switched for olive oil. 

You can add chicken or ground beef to this dish as well, which would probably help enhance the Tex-Mex feel. 

I originally planned to add corn, but I totally forgot to cook it until everything was all stirred together. Oops! 

You can add or omit anything that you want to. This recipe is like a basic guideline, and everything else is just what you make of it.