Gluten-Free/Vegan/Momma's Blog

I made this for an easy and quick Sunday night dinner.  We were all feeling tired and worn out so I needed a recipe that wasn’t going to take a lot of chopping power or concentration.  Emmy (my 15 month old) really liked having the beans and rice separate on her plate.  This is also another very inexpensive meal that can feed lots of people!  Yea for feeding 4 people for less than 4 dollars!  Gluten-free and Vegan is a great way to save some hard earned cash.

Dinner 9/27/2009:

Mexican Brown Rice with Pinto Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 onion, diced fine (very important to dice it very fine)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (we needed to add an extra teaspoon at the end for flavor)
• 1 cup long-grain brown rice, rinsed and drained
• 1 and 3/4 to 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste or sauce (i would use 2 tbls. next time)
• 3 cups cooked pinto beans

Directions:

Heat oil in a 2-quart pot.  Add cumin and chili powder and saute for a few seconds.  Add onion and salt and continue cooking until onion is soft.  Add rice and stir well to coat.  Now add water and tomato paste and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer, covered, until all the water is absorbed (about 4 minutes).  Serve next to hot pinto beans.

From Cynthia Lair’s Feeding the Whole Family: Cooking with Whole Foods (Best cookbook I have ever had!)

Alternative if you already have rice cooked:  Add cooked rice without any water but an extra tablespoon of tomato paste.  Also – if you like onions (we love them) add an extra sauted onion to the pinto beans, less finely chopped for more flavor.  This is a very mild meal which is great for kiddos but can sometime need an extra boost at the table.  I also served this alongside a dry green lettuce salad (you can pile the rice and beans on top for dressing or make lettuce wraps at the table) and hard corn tortilla’s so that rice and beans taco’s could be made.  Yum!