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. 
There is absolutely a time and place for everything! I totally agree. This is such a classic dish, and you’ve made it beautifully. 🙂
Such a great dish. My only complaint is when people use canned green beans. The taste and texture can be killed with canned green beans. I don’t like to hear my green beans screeching while I chew them.
This picture looks delicious, by the way.
I love green bean casserole. It’s one of my favorite holiday recipes. Sometimes we spice things up and add browned ground beef to the green bean mixture and top it with mashed potatoes. This makes it more like a dinner casserole and then I can justify eating plates and plates of it…hahaha.
Ya know, this looks good, but I’ve never been anywhere this was served. Seems I might be missing out?
I completely agree with Joe. I always use fresh or frozen green beans.
We make this every year too at Thanksgiving and Christmas.My 4 kids hate mushrooms so we use cream of celery or cream of chicken.
I completely agree, this recipe is perfect (and very nostalgic) just the way it is on the package. It just wouldn’t feel like a holiday meal without this dish!
This is one of my favorite holiday side dishes! Canned green beans, soup, and all! I agree with you about having the time and place for such ingredients; it’s such a classic and familiar recipe.