The Best Beans and Rice

This recipe will change the way you think about beans and rice. I promise. In our house, we have a certain 5-year-old who gets very teary-eyed over beans in his dinner. This recipe has changed the way he feels about burritos. The last time I served this for dinner, I started to give him the usual 6 hours notice that there would be beans in his dinner and I expected him to be ready to eat beans by dinner-time. What do you think he said? The boy said “I love burritos!!” You could have knocked me over with a tortilla.

The cookbook where this recipe comes from, The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook, is just fabulous. Really. I can’t even tell you enough times how fabulous it is. I get really frustrated with allergen-free cookbooks that require me to make three other recipes before I can make the dish I actually want to eat (“Oh, it’s easy! Just make my allergen-free bread recipe on page 26 and then my allergen-free pesto sauce on page 83 and then my dairy-free cheez recipe on page 94, and then you can put this recipe together in no time!”) This is not one of those cookbooks.

Cybele is so great at giving real recipes for real foods that are allergen free. This cookbook seriously changed my allergen-free cooking experience from one of frustration to one of pure delight. My whole family loves this cookbook, and that is the highest recommendation I can possibly give.

I typically use dried beans in place of the canned beans in this recipe, just because it’s so much more affordable. I also like to cook it in my slow cooker, softening the veggies in the slow cooker on high, then adding the remaining ingredients and letting it simmer all day. If I have a scrap of beef in the freezer I throw it in and shred it up at dinner time.

I serve mine up with avocado and tomato and a sprinkle of Daiya cheese.

Raf’s Cuban Rice and Beans

Source: The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal

Ingredients:

• 1 large Spanish onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 green pepper cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 4 15 oz. cans black beans about 6 cups
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup red wine or cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 cans (from beans) water
• sliced avocado and tomato for serving if desired
• 1 pot of prepared rice of your choosing (we use brown rice)

Method:

1. Saute onion, garlic and bay leaf in olive oil over medium heat until onion is soft. Add green pepper, oregano, cumin, and cloves. Cook about 2 minutes. Add black beans, salt, pepper, vinegar, honey, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook at a simmer, loosely covered, for about 2 hours, stirring frequently.
2. Serve your beans on top of rice with tomatoes and avocado.