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. 
Good luck with the storm. Be safe, glad to read you turned around and went home thinking about the end of the day!
I think if I was still in New York state I’d be baking up a storm to prepare for the Sandy Blizzard myself. Here in Alabama we can only hope for the best for you all on the shorelines up there!
Thanks. So far so good where I live. We haven’t list power yet, so that’s good!
I’m the same way with snacks at home! Once I get some in my hand, it’s over! These would definitely disappear rather quickly in our house, too =)
beantownbaker — March 6th, 2013 @ 8:38 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only one like that!
I have tried a couple different recipes for the beloved hone mustard pretzels but to no avail…they always remain kind of “sticky”, so I am eager to try yours but I think they too will be sticky….are they?Why can’t you find the honey mustard pretzels anymore except in small bags????
beantownbaker — March 8th, 2014 @ 1:14 pm
I agree. They were a bit sticky the next day. But the first day, they weren’t. If they are when you take them out, just toss them and bake a little while longer.
The pretzels were very soft and nasty. I was hoping they were going to be like the Hanover Honey Mustard pretzels but are not at all. They don’t have a lot of flavor and the kids didn’t like that they were soft. I would not make them again.