My Ultimate Pantry Meal: Beans and Rice

Plus a table of variations

Today I made one of my favorite things to cook when I don’t feel like cooking and I also don’t feel like shopping for or ordering food, but I do feel like eating something warm and hearty: RICE (🍚) AND BEANS (🫘).

There are a million different ways to make rice and beans, but the version I came up with a year or so ago, loosely inspired by red beans and rice and tightly inspired by the ingredients I usually have in my pantry/fridge, is as follows:

• Rice: My favorite is short-grain brown rice because it’s nutty and chewy. Sometimes I’ll do white rice mixed with quinoa for a similar texture. I let the rice cooker do the work here.

• Beans: For this dish, I like brown or red or black beans. I am a big fan of Rancho Gordo’s dried beans cooked on the stovetop with a bay leaf and a garlic clove, partly because I like to add just a little bean broth to my rice and beans.

• Accoutrements: The one item I always have in my fridge is plain yogurt, because it doesn’t really go bad. I add a scoop of yogurt to my rice and beans, drizzle it with a ton of olive oil, sprinkle on some flaky sea salt, and douse it in Crystal hot sauce. If I have green onions, I’ll snip some of the greens on for garnish.

Although I love this super, super simple version, I couldn’t help daydreaming about all the different ways to dress this dish up. Some ideas:

I’d love to know: What’s your version of rice and beans?

xo SB