Rice and Beans
Hubby loves to cook and rice and beans is one of his favorite things to make. His father came to the US from Cuba back in the 70s (I was just corrected. It was 1967) and taught Hubby to make a few classic dishes. This recipe is the quick version of rice and beans. It uses canned beans and doesn’t take long to throw together at all. We eat this meal on a fairly regular basis. It can be made vegetarian by leaving out the chorizo or using soyrizo.
One of the first times our parents met, Hubby’s father made rice and beans for some of us. My little sister, who was nine at the time, claimed she didn’t like rice and beans and wouldn’t eat it. We finally convinced her to try a bite and she ended up eating two platefuls!
We like to serve this over brown rice. And, the beans can be frozen once cooked. Hubby made a couple batches prior to our kitchen renovation and we froze it in individual portions.
One Year Ago: My First Operation Baking Gals
Quick Rice and Beans
Yield: 4-6
Ingredients:
2 cans of beans - garbonzos (chick peas) or kidney beans
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1-2 links of Chorizos, torn into bite sized pieces
4-6 cloves of garlic, mashed in a mortar and pestle
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp ground coriander
1 green pepper cut in half and into strips (optional)
Olive oil
Directions:
Make the Sofrito
Pour ~2 Tbsp of olive oil into a medium frying pan. Heat on medium and once hot add garlic. Sauté garlic for a few seconds to season the oil. Add onions and peppers before the garlic gets browned. Continue to cook until the onion starts to soften then add chorizo. Cook until the onions are soft and the chorizo juices have spread and the sofrito has an orangy tinge.
Meanwhile, prepare the Beans
Add both cans of beans including the juices to a saucepan. Add some water so that the beans are ~1/2 an inch below the water level. Bring to a boil.
When sofrito is ready, add to beans and mix. Add bay leaves and coriander.
Cover and boil for at least 20 minutes. Ensure that the water level stays above the beans. You can boil the beans for longer to continue to distribute the flavors even more. Remove bay leaves prior to serving. Serve over rice.
Recipe from Hubby
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This combines 2 of my husband’s loves – shrimp and cilantro! Love the ice cube trick too!
Yum, I love shrimp! Hadn’t thought to flavor it with pesto. Warm crusty bread would be yummy with it!
~ingrid
OH WOW so simple and so beautiful! I need to make myself some pesto cubes for moments like these 🙂
What a delicious and easy dinner! I’m lucky if I’m home by 8:30, so I completely understand needing quick recipes! I’ll have to try the frozen pesto trick.
i just made my first batch of ice cube pesto from our basil forest. neil panics every time i make pesto. he needs verification that i have not used up too much basil. if i use 10% of what is in the garden, then we are in the safety zone. let it grow back, use another 10%. at the end of the season, we will have 9000 cubes of pesto in the freezer and neil will be happy. totally jealous of your new stove, btw. i want a griddle!
I love the frozen pesto concept! I have a lot of basil, but there are only two of us in my house and we can only eat so much. I will have to try this. The shrimp looks great.
this looks great, and it really can’t get much easier
Hi there! Love this idea. Great job!
I was wondering where I can find pesto? Also, do you have any ideas for sides that would be good with this? I’m not familiar with pesto’s flavor and I want to surprise my husband with something 🙂 Thanks!
Jori – I make my own pesto using this recipe.