IMO, rice and beans need fat for flavor. The combination is a healthy and filling one, but without something added to it, it's not something that tastes great. Added some meat with fat makes it into something that is qualified to be called food, not just the intake of energy.

For me, different meats seem to work well with different beans. A smoked turkey drumstick or two in a pot of dried limas is a good combination, as are:

1. smoked ham hocks and small white or navy beans;
2. red beans with bacon and smoked sausage;
3. black beans and chorizo;
4. lentils with Italian sausage;
5. large white beans and kielbasa or knockwurst;
etc., etc., etc.

Things to consider, what beans and meat YOU think make a good combination; what other things you think should be added to that combination. I could not imagine making a pot of beans without starting with some onions. After cooking onions until they are at least clear, my beans dishes will all vary. I do not really follow recipes, but add what seems to be right at that time with those ingredients. For a pot with lentils and Italian sausage, I might add to the onions once clear, some garlic, dried thyme, sausage, and then maybe a little escarole and stock (either chicken or veggie). The pot with kielbasa is going to get different stuff, maybe some tomato, parsley, marjoram, paprika, etc.

There's more ways to cook beans than there are people who are cooking beans.

Also, the grain you use need not always be rice. As mentioned above, I've had beans with corn bread, ladled right on top instead of rice or on the side in addition to rice. I've forgotten what I did, but I recalls cooking beans with a beef sausage and beef broth, that I served on with pearled barley. I added the barley to what was really soup with beans and sausage, and let it soak up all the broth. I'm sure you can do the same with other grains.