I tried a new recipe today. It was nice to cook again. I haven’t cooked much since before Christmas. I ate lots of delicious midwestern cuisine (turkey, ham, sweet potato pie, rice pudding, green bean casserole) in La Crosse. When Ben and I were in Chicago, we tried banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) at the new French market in Ogilvie and we ate amazing tacos at Paul Kahan’s new joint Big Star, followed by a nice dessert of wines/champagne/cheese/cake at Volo. Anyways, onto my new recipe. It was an adaptation of a meat-containing recipe in allrecipes.com but I eliminated the meat and substituted brown rice for white rice (which prolonged the cooking time, but tastes amazing!).
Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground tumeric
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
2 cups veggie stock (I made from scratch)
3 cups garbanzo beans (equal to about 2 cans), drained and rinsed
1 cup black beans (I made from scratch)
1 bunch chopped fresh cilantro
1 bunch chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in rice, cumin, coriander, tumeric and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir for 2 minutes, then pour in veggie stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
2. Gently mix garbanzo beans, black beans, cilantro and parsley into the cooked rice. Season with salt and pepper.