OK, so you know I've been trying to make beans and rice, but you might not know why it was a challenge. For this geek, the issue is not with getting a tasty meal, it's with creating a beans and rice "process" that results in several tasty meals for minimal time, money, and effort. So far, my experiments with beans and rice have all been tasty (some a bit too spicy, I admit), but they yielded 2-4 big servings at most.
As a side note, if you're at all uncertain about why you should definitely be eating beans,
this article is a good start.
So I looked for the right recipe, and did not find it. After studying a few different recipe styles, I made three decisions:
1.) Cook the beans seperately and just spoon them onto rice (simple, versatile, stores better)
2.) Start with pinto beans (versatile, available, cheap)
3.) Make sure everyone in the house can eat it (no pork, no nitrates, not too spicy)
So with a couple of reference recipes to get an idea of ratios and cook-times plus the flavors I've liked the best in previous experiments, this is what I came up with. It saves time by creating a HUGE batch that still fits in our biggest 5qt pot (barely), uses mostly fresh incredients, it's tasty (spicy enough for me, not too spicy for the Missus), very diet-friendly (especially since we serve it w/ brown rice), and it contains no pork or nitrates. Admittedly, uncured turkey bacon is a luxury (compared with other meats I could have picked), but pork was a no-go and the flavor it imparts is key. And if we bring this to an event any time soon, I'll just use regular bacon. Pork virtually gets its own food group down here, so I'm pretty sure no one will mind.
So here it is - subject to refinement, though I could eat it just like this and be very happy.
Into a big pot (5qt minimum) goes...
2lbs Pinto Beans (pre-soaked overnight)
10C water
2tbs olive oil (extra virgin if you have it)
1 Jalepeno (seeded and diced)
2 small yellow onions (diced)
3 cloves garlic (minced or crushed)
7 cooked strips of uncured (nitrate-free) turkey bacon (chopped after cooking - 3/4"?)
Bring all this to a boil then lower heat and cook on medium for 45 minutes stirring occasionally
Add:
3 med (or 2 large) tomatoes (pureed)
1/2 tsp cumin
2tsp salt
Lower heat and simmer for another hour stirring occasionally
Add:
Handful cilantro (minced)
Simmer until it looks/feels the way you like.
Serve:
... In a bowl over a scoop of your favorite type of rice (cooked, of course).
I could see increasing the Jalepenos to 2 (or 1, but keep the seeds) if your household is OK with a higher spice level. The thing I'm really interested in is to find out if it's possible to modify this recipe to work with dry beans/longer slower cooking and avoid the soaking step. Probably not possible in a 5qt pot, but that's ok for now.
