Just what it says. Thats what I'm lookin for since I know we have lots of culinary experts around. It all started in hopes of improving my simple cooking skills and I started with a black beans and (brown) rice recipe I found here. Added some sausage and it turned out surprisingly good and very filling. A hearty, healthy meal for less than 5 bucks! Anyway, I have a newfound respect for the lowly beans and rice, especially as a survival food. Looking for simple recipes, tips, or suggestions. What other spices could I use besides cumin and cayanne pepper?

I make this in about a 4qt. size slow cooker.
Fill the cooker with water to pre-soak beans.
Check/sort about 1/2 pound of pinto beans. At some point you Will
find a small pebble, it's better to find it now than break a tooth on it!
Soak these beans for 8 hours ( overnight ).
Drain and discard the water, or not. Some people will use it to
cook other things with, I don't.

You now have your 1/2 pounds of soaked "Fat" beans.
Refill the slow cooker with water leaving an 1in or 2in of space
for extra ingredients.
To this water add one Knorr tomato/chicken soup cube.
Add one small smoked turkey leg, This is why you leave
the 1 or 2 in of space.
You could add any type of meat you like , Spam, Ham Shank ( more meaty than hocks ) sausage etc. I got a deal on the turkey legs so
I use those.
Add 1/2 Onion chopped up or 1/2 tbs of Onion flakes.
turn your cooker on and 6 hours later you have dinner.
If you don't want it quite so soupy then mix up 1 tbs of
corn starch in 1/2 cup of cold water and stir it into the
finished beans. 10 min later it will thicken up to a gravy.

I serve this with buttered bread.
I put a slice of b. bread in a bowl and top it with a big scoop of bean soup.
I sometimes also add instant rice to soak up the soup or I will
leave the bread out and pour the soup over plain cooked rice.

Total prep time is about 10 min. of actual work.

Sounds a lot like how my Mother used to make them. The only differences that I can see is that she didn't use a tomato/chicken cube and instead of just pinto beans, she would mix pintos and great northerns about half and half. Now if I see a bowl of just pinto beans alone, it looks like there is something wrong. Gotta have the great northerns too. I make mine the same way she does. That and a plate of cornbread (no sugar thank you very much ) hot out of the oven ...... man I'm getting hungry all of a sudden .....


LW

have nothing to include for recipes, but love beans and rice.

I add a can of corn and a can of stewed tomatoes, to rice and beans. I drain and reserve the liquids from the cans, and use it to replace some of the broth, or if I'm adding spicy meat, I just use water, instead of broth.

+1 on the cornbread!

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.

Great stuff, folks. Taking notes. Keep it coming.

Great. Thanks everyone. Gonna try these recipes out. Question though. How long do you let barley cook and how much do you put in? Oh, and please feel free to list your cornbread recipes too.

LED

Here is a recipe that I have found that is very similar to the one I use and my recipe is from my Grandmother who was the head cook at a dude ranch in Montana once-upon-a-time. The main difference is I use more bacon (mmmmmmm, BACON) and/ or cubed bone-in (country style) ham. I also add onion, sometimes garlic, I also have another recipe (Grandmas) that is called cowboy beans. Use the simple one first.

recipe

Now a warning: This website is very photo intensive. You may experience severe drooling in which may case you may need to buy a new keyboard. Don't blame me I am only the messenger.

Standard disclaimer applies.

Try cooking your beans in a cast iron pot, yummy. Barley cooks in about a 1/2 hour or so.

Stargazer

Thanks Stargazer, got all the ingredients. Gonna be a bean eating weekend.