Tasty Rice and Beans

Posted on Fri, 20 Jul 2007

Hmmm, just got home (after 10pm, after a days semi-fasting...) and was naturally very hungry (I was anticipating getting home much earlier). I threw together the following, and it came out really nice.

  • Half a cup of rice (long-grain)
  • Curry powder to taste (by which I mean a generous shake or few)
  • A good handful of currants (this is key to having it slightly sweet, which contrasts nicely with the robust spices).
  • A little salt.
  • A can of chilli beans.
  • Popadoms or similar to accompany.

Put all this in a microwave rice-cooker (if you don't have one, get one now, they're cheap (~$5) and really really useful—especially if you cook rice like I do, poorly). Cook for 20 minutes, stirring half-way through, otherwise the rice settles and doesn't cook so well.

Cook some popadoms, fry a tortilla or get a naan bread etc. to go with it, or wrap it in an enchilada.

I suppose you could substitute other beans for the chilli beans, although I wouldn't use baked-beans as the tomato sauce would dominate too much. I suppose you could add more curry powder (baked beans + curry powder + cheese = yum).

Note: unlike most Indian/Asian-style dishes, cook the rice with the beans, not separate. Rice and beans is a typical Mexican dish, and often is found inside an enchilada. Cooking the rice with the beans helps to infuse the rice with some needed flavour.