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–+ servings

African Style Rice & Beans (sometimes called "Rice & Peas")

This is a super tasty, nutritious, protein efficient dish that is a meal in itself, but that is a great accompaniment to stews or that other great African dish also oddly called "Irish Potatoes".
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Course Accompaniment
Cuisine African
Servings 10 Portions

Equipment

  • medium sized pan
  • Sieve

Ingredients
  

  • 250 g long grain brown rice basmati is good
  • 2 onions – 420g
  • ½ a bulb of garlic whole bulb if you like garlic like me! 35g
  • Can of coconut milk – 400g full fat or light
  • Coconut oil to fry onions. couple of dessert spoons
  • 1 Cube of creamed coconut 25g - optional
  • Can of black beans 240g
  • Can of pinto lima or kidney beans 240g
  • Mild curry powder - 2 flat tablespoons – 20g
  • Medium Curry powder 1 flat tablespoon - 10g
  • 2 flat tablespoons of marigold veg stock – 20g
  • Heaped teasps each of dried thyme and rosemary
  • Optional item – 3 sticks of celery – 165g approx

Instructions
 

  • Boil the rice for 10 mins on a fairly high heat, then drain and wash.
  • Meanwhile chop & start frying the onion and garlic in the coconut oil for a few minutes while you chop the celery (until it’s just going translucent).
  • Then add in the finely sliced celery (1cm length pieces) and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until just starting to brown.
  • Chop a red pepper - optional and add - so a few minutes after the celery
  • Add in the mild and medium curry powders - and fry a bit more – but not too long or it will stick and burn.
    Onions, garlic, celery, red pepper
  • Just at the end add in the rosemary and thyme.
  • Then add the coconut milk, and the same volume of water as the volume of dry rice (350ml approx.) plus the veg stock.
    Adding the coconut milk
  • Add in the part boiled rice.
    the importance of wholegrains
  • Allow to come back to the boil and after 5 minutes or so, add in the pre-cooked beans.
    adding in the pre-cooked beans
  • Bring back it to the boil and simmer on a VERY low heat (stirring occasionally) until the rice is cooked and nearly all the water absorbed – it wants to still be quite moist, but with no obvious liquid.
    Nearly finished rice & peas dish
  • Near the end, you can add some lo-salt or soya sauce or lemon juice to enhance the flavour.

Notes

  • I didn't take a photo of the fully cooked dish - couldn't wait to eat it!
  • I pre-cook my beans in bulk, then freeze them - it's about half the price of buying tins of beans - means you can have organic for half the price of tinned ones!
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