Category Archives: Rice (Veg)

SPICY BLACK BEANS & TOMATOES

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INGREDIENTS
  • 1 lb. (2 cups) dry black beans $1.20
  • 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes $0.88
  • 4 cloves garlic $0.18
  • ½ Tbsp cumin $0.05
  • 1 med jalapeno $0.13
  • to taste salt $0.05
  • 5 cups water $0.00
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Sort through your beans to remove any stones or damaged beans. Rinse the beans well to remove any dust. Place the beans in the slow cooker.
  2. Also add to the slow cooker: a can of diced tomatoes (including juices), 4 cloves of garlic (smashed or roughly chopped), one jalapeno (diced and seeds removed), and ½ Tbsp of cumin. Do not add salt at this point. Add 5 cups of water, secure the lid and set the heat to high.
  3. After four hours open the slow cooker and check the beans to make sure they are tender. They should be fully cooked at this point but if they aren’t, simply cook them longer and check again after a couple hours. Season the beans with salt (I used about ½ tsp).
  4. Either serve the beans immediately or divide up and freeze in single or double serving sized portions.
NOTES
Additional options: diced onion, red pepper flakes, bay leaves (1 or 2) or low sodium chicken stock in place of water.

Mediterranean (Easy) Risotto

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Ingredients

  • 2 cups arborio rice
  • 4 cups boiling water (OPTIONAL -SUBSITUTE 1 CUP FOR A GLASS OF CHEAP CASK WHITE WINE)
  • 10g chicken flavoured stock cube
  • 425 gram of crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons margarine
  • 2 cups sliced mushrooms
  • 3 cups spinach leaves
  • ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (I ADDED ‘NORMAL’ VINTAGE CHEESE, AS DIDN’T WANT TO WASTE ALL MY EXP. PARMESAN)
  • 1 capsicum (I MISSED THIS OUT)
  • 60g reduced fat fetta cheese, cubed

Method

Combine rice, tomatoes water, stock cube, margarine and mushrooms into a large ovenproof dish (CASSEROLE DISH). Cover dish tightly with lid. Bake in a hot oven, 200 degrees, for 30-45minutes or until rice is tender. Stir through spinach leaves, Parmesan, capiscum and fetta. EAT – it is really, really good!

Originally, this was in the 2007 Sunday paper and described as “an excellent weeknight meal”. It only takes half an hour to cook, and what’s even better is that once you place it in the oven there is no need to stir, unlike risotto prepared in a saucepan”. It is a really sweetish taste, but I like that (stores well for lunch! Sweetness could also be the wine I used, so you could alter that).