Thoughtless Thursdays: Black Beans And Rice

Black beans and rice is one of our favorite hearty dishes.  It’s a standard when there’s leftover rice and I”m not in the mood to do all the chopping for fried rice.  It’s a pretty forgiving dish, so it seemed like a good one to try to adapt for the crock pot.

My first attempt was a disaster.  I decided to make a few changes since it’s going to be hanging out in the crock pot for a while.  Rather than using leftover rice as in the original recipe, I went ahead and used raw brown rice.  I figured the precooked rice would disintegrate and go mushy by dinner.  Also, I did not sautee the onion and garlic as I normally would.  The end result was a mushy, gelatinous nastiness.  Rice in any form does NOT do well for lengthy crock pot time.  Raw or precooked, it all goes mushy and gross.

So when I made my second attempt, I stuck to my original recipe and kept OUT the pre-cooked rice until the last half hour.  This worked beautifully and even cut down on the fat and calories a little bit, as I didn’t saute the garlic and onion–so there’s no oil.  This does fit within the parameters of Wave 1 of Sonoma as long as you’re having a Tier 1 veggie as a side.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound smoked turkey sausage (I prefer Oscar Meyer), sliced
  • 1 can of black beans, drained
  • 1 can of rotel, undrained
  • 2 cups of brown rice, cooked
  • 1/2 cup diced, roasted red peppers
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • cumin
  • cilantro
  • paprika

Directions:

  1. Prep all your ingredients and begin by layering the rotel and diced red peppers on the bottom of your crock.  I used a 4 quart crock for this recipe.
  2. Add the diced onion and garlic.
  3. Add the cumin, cilantro, and paprika.  I have no measurements as what I use is different every time. Probably about a teaspoon of each to taste.
  4. Add the beans.
  5. Layer the sausage on top.
  6. Pour the chicken stock over the whole thing.  Stir well.
  7. Cook on low for about 6 hours.
  8. Once you get home (assuming you’re cooking this while you’re at work), add the leftover brown rice and crank up the temp to high for another half hour in order to heat the rice through and get it to absorb a bit of the liquid remaining in the bottom.
  9. Stir well and serve.

Printable version.

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