Black Beans and Rice

I ‘m just fascinated by how Europeans can eat just Beans and Toast and like it. And how the Spanish  can have Rice and Beans as their diet staple.   I’ll admit that when I first tried my cooked just plain non flavored beans and rice, it was really hard to stomach.  But when I tried the dish at a Spanish Restaurant it totally tasted different.  Hence, my quest to find a low fat, tasty rice and beans recipe.  I’ve figured out that although it looks like just plain non flavored rice and beans, it’s actually richly flavored by the way they prepare the beans.

I found out the Brazilians boil their beans in a stock of Ham Bones and Bay Leaves.  Giving it a layer of awesome flavor without adding a ton of fat.  Since I have no idea where to get Ham Bones and I didn’t want to actually go out and buy something new, I experimented with long forgotten ham I had in my freezer.  So what I did was tossed in the whole slices of HAM that I wasn’t sure if was still good enough to eat in salted water and put on low flame to boil with my dry beans.  And I just improvised on a substitute for Bay Leaves, with Chives and Basil and some Adobo.  After a half an hour, my pot smelled like HAM.  And the final result was a more flavored Black Bean.

But still not enough for me to be able to eat just Black Beans and Rice as a whole entrée.  So I took it further and sautéed it with Garlic and Unions.  It was better but still not enough for my tastes.

Then I found a version we’re they sautéed with Suffrito.  Which is combo of garlic, union, peppers, (sometimes tomato paste) and Sazon (Spanish Style MSG).  The final verdict, I was able to eat a whole bowl of rice with this version without the Sazon and not need meat!  

Conclusion: This was a super filling, low fat alternative for a meatless dinner.  Usually lots of meatless meals add a ton of cheese.  Which is not only expensive but super unhealthy and fatty.  Literally a bowl of white rice costs about $.25 if you get a big 25lb bag for about $15 mid-price level (you can get it much lower on sale) and I barely used my huge batch of beans, and all the other things for the suffrito were from my freezer stock pile of $1 bags I got from Chinese Grocery Store.  Being generous, one healthy and filling meal cost about $.50.