I had some free brown rice to use. I knew there had to be a beans and rice recipe out there for that. The last three ingredients of the first recipe I saw included dry sherry, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. That was a combination I needed to try.
I was going to scale the recipe up and some of the numbers just didn’t look right. For example it wanted so much onion that it would overload the recipe. I took the picture of the mise en place after cutting the onion in half and knowing that the three ingredients are the end were definitely going to need adjustments. I ended up doubling all but the soy sauce just before serving.
It’s getting harder to trust recipes.
But was I able to get it to work? Yes.
Cost per person: $2.45, a little more than the bread and butter.
There’s a reason “beans and rice” is a cliche for the diet of “The Poors.”
It’s relatively cheap, will keep you alive, and relatively healthy.
That’s the goal. I broke out one of my Indian cookbooks today to see if I could find something In the rice and beans category that offer the balance protein profile, but also add a lot more flavor than we would typically find in an American rice and beans dish.
But I’m going to have to get some money before fully doing that because I need to hit up the Super G and stock up on ginger and curry leaves. So I’m still in the research phase.
Chickpea curry is delicious. Americans probably call chickpeas something else.
These days they are known as chickpeas, but they used to be known as garbanzo beans. We have a very sad past.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m shitting on it. There are many variations of “Beans and Rice” that are delicious.
I’m just saying it can keep you alive and healthy, cheaply.
Edit: I meant NOT shitting on it.
some free brown rice to use
Who just goes around handing out free brown rice?
If you go to weddings with a bucket you can get some when the bride goes down the aisle
Has anyone tried this? Are you a bird?
A friend moved and forced me to take things from their kitchen. Brown rice was one of the spoils.
You probably shouldn’t eat spoiled rice.
Top notch. 👌
This looks simultaneously tasty and basic, so I’m intrigued to learn more details about how you made it. Could you link the recipe please?
This is the recipe. But I scaled up to a 4x batch size. “Only” used two onions, should have only used one. I’d go with two celery ribs. I doubled the sherry and soy sauce but those would need readjusting again with the smaller amount of veg.
Also I didn’t add the paprika until the garlic is added.
My cheapest meal prep is red lentils and yellow curry paste. Works out to about 65c aud per meal. Sometimes I’ll add rice or veggies, but plain is fine too.
That looks delicious.
I’m tempted to ask to move in with them just for the food.
You may find it strange, but I love to add diced cucumbers to my rice, as well as onions, celery, garlic. I really love it for some reason.
My wife thinks cucumbers are food group. But I won’t be telling her about that.
My good buddy rice is an energy device.
Free rice is free energy
I think I would have cut the onions the other way so they break down a bit more.
The recipe said to slice them length wise. If I did this again i would reduce the amount of onion and celery by half again and I would probably just chop the onion instead of slicing. This gave it too much of a chop suey texture that I didn’t really care for. It worked. It could have been better.
When I make red beans and rice I use equal parts onion, celery, and bell pepper. I chop them very finely and then cook them till they turn to a mushy, thick, aromatic sauce.
About an hour before the beans are done I’ll scoop out a cup of them out and mash them up to thicken the sauce some more. It’s at this point that I’ll add some browned sausage into the pot.
I do like adding some pickled onions when serving, because the acidity balances the fat from the sausage nicely.
I wish I could get andouille here.
Andouille is great, but really any smoked sausage works well. I actually prefer boudin if you can get that, because the chunks all stay together.
But don’t forget to brown them first, that’s very important.
I’ll have to try boudin in mine one day, though I’m skeptical that what red beans and rice needs is ground meat and more rice.
You’re absolutely right, I got the two types mixed up. That’s what I get for going off of memory.
I do use boudin sometimes, but I always go half and half with a chunkier sausage that holds together. Thanks for the note.
I always support a boudin recommendation. My dream is to one day be able to buy it anywhere, since I’m only in Louisiana half a year or less recently. Although, I can generally find decent boudin in store all the way west to Houston (but not too far east from new Orleans), it is mostly in specialty meat stores otherwise. I’m just south of Canada right now, out west, and the local grocery has legit store made andouille so I take that as a sign my hoped for future is coming to pass.
It’s a texture thing, but I can’t eat onions like that. Half the time I saute the veg then puree.
They’re good in certain things, like cut up small on a hot dog or on tacos. But that’s a very strong savory flavor with a light onion crunch providing contrast.
I can’t eat most pureed things for probably the same reason. There needs to be texture in food.
brown rice is better than white rice. white rice tastes like candy to me.
