I, and the rest of my family, have gone nearly vegetarian without realizing it because of this beans and rice concoction that we don't tire of eating for lunch 313 days per year. (For more on our transition to a nearly meat-less diet, see my blog Why we all need to become environmental vegetarians... or at least flexitarians).

My dish is basically beans, rice & veggies with sofrito (Sofrito is a very common Spanish sauce consisting of olive oil, onion, garlic and tomato). It's a very easy, and cheap, dish. You don't need to know how to cook, just how to turn on your stove. You can make it with just about any beans. Our favorites are garbanzos, black beans and lentils.

I buy dried beans to avoid ending up with 313 glass jars for all of those pre-cooked beans. It's still pretty mindless as long as you remember to put the beans in a pot with water to soak overnight. Then the next day they just need to cook for about an hour. Most beans need to be soaked overnight and then cooked for an hour or so on low. If you forget to soak the beans overnight, just cook the lentils since they don't really need to soak (I've thrown dried lentils in a pot and cooked them for a half hour or so and they were ready to go).

I also have a how to video where I cook our daily beans & rice while my daughter eats beans on the floor below me.

Ingredients

• Beans (black, garbanzo, lentils, lima, pinto... I've never tried a bean I didn't like.)
• Rice (I prefer brown, but you can use white.)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Tomato
• olive oil
• vegetables (Add whatever you like. Veggies like broccoli and kale have a lot of protein and work well.)
• spices (You can be creative. I like paprika and rosemary. But curry works well with lentils.)
• *Optional: cheese- I find feta and blue cheese work best, but I'm also trying to cut down on dairy and haven't been adding it lately.

Directions

1. Soak dried beans overnight, as discussed above.
2. Cook rice in a separate pot.
3. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil.
4. Add rosemary and paprika to the olive oil to infuse it with the flavor.
5. Sautee the onions in the olive oil for about a minute.
6. Add garlic. Let cook for 30 seconds or a minute before next step.
7. Add a chopped tomato and salt (salt isn't necessary if you add cheese). Let cook for a minute or two before next step.
8. Add feta or blue cheese (if you choose to add cheese). Let cook for 30 seconds or a minute before next step.
9. Add chopped vegetables and beans and cover. Let simmer on low heat for a few minutes.
10. Once the vegetables are soft enough for you, add cooked rice and stir in.
11. Serve.

There is nothing sacred about this recipe. I have left out plenty of items when I had run out of one thing or another and it works fine. I vary the quantity of each ingredient depending on what I have in the refrigerator.