Black Bean Soup and Yellow Rice (a quick easy version)

Hello everybody,

This blog I guess has just become a dropping spot for my favorite creations, or ideas that pass through my charming mind. I promise, I am either planning, cooking or dreaming food. No, not like the chefs on TV but like a woman trying to feed her family or just herself, sometimes just to  find a way to hit those cravings. Sometimes the simplest and the quickest is the way. I feed a family of 5, and sadly to say, none of them like beans. The only beans that will cross there lips are pork-n-beans. Yep that is all. Me being southern, I grew up on a great pot of pintos, and cornbread.
I find a funny comfort in it all.

As I got older and went to NYC for a few years, I lived in Spanish Harlem and in my apartment building I made friends with a lot of Brazilians;  there main food was rice and beans. Black beans, Oh Man they could make it so tasty that you would be happy to live off rice and beans. Served with a simple chopped lettuce, a few chopped onion, tomatoes, and sometimes a cucumber with a simple oil, vinegar and salt and pepper. What they could could cook in their apartments could rival the finest restaurants in NYC. The food and the company, set the stage for a wonderful experience. I look back on all my time I spent in Spanish Harlem as one of the best adventures and times of my life. I would live it all again. I still do this day, keep ties with a few of my friends. Facebook made that possible.

This recipe was for a quick fix craving. I always keep these things in my pantry and in my fridge. I keep at least a few cans of black beans, and I always have a can of diced jalapeno unopened, or if not they are in the fridge.

Black Bean Soup and Yellow Rice

The Yellow Rice
Let me start with the rice, because it needs to start first and it will take I think at least 40 minutes in the rice cooker. This is the only way I do my rice and it turns out perfect every time.
I use this rice

I get this from the Hispanic section of the grocery store, I can guarantee if not this brand there is another. Sam's has one too. I like it because it has all the seasonings in it.

I wish I could help you out with the portions, but it all depends around here on who is hungry. I made 3 cups of dried yesterday and it made about 6 cups cooked. Not bad but it was just enough for one serving around and no leftovers.

Yellow Rice

Ingredients

3 cups of yellow rice

4 1/2 cup of water ( i use 1 1/2 cup water with 1 cup rice)

4 chicken bouillon (I use the powder)

1/4 cup of olive oil (By putting the olive oil in the rice it gives each rice its own texture, no mushy stuff.)

Instructions

1. Put all in the pot of the rice cooker.

2. Stir well

3. Hit on, and white rice and let it do its thing.

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

2 cans black beans

1/2 can water

2 tablespoons of chicken bouillon

1 whole diced onion

garlic (pre-minced - about 2 tablespoons - as much as you like)

3 stalks of diced celery

1 carrot, diced

peppers (any type and it is optional)

jalapenos (pre-diced in jar - really great idea - as much as you like)

Instructions

1. Saute the onion, garlic, celery, carrot and the jalapenos until everyone is soft.

2. Pour in both cans of black beans, juice and all.

3. Add a half can of water.

4. Add the chicken bouillon.

5. Simmer on low, with a lid, while the rice is cooking.

When everything is ready. I plate this in a shallow large salad bowl. I like to make it kinda fancy and I can enjoy it with my eyes and my tongue.

I take the rice and pile nicely on one side of the plate. Then I serve the beans, not getting a lot of the broth yet. and place on the other side of the rice, and then I ladle in the broth, over the beans and it flows to under the rice. I sprinkle then with a little diced onion. I would think you could do cheese, sour cream and such. Although the flavors were so great without any toppings.

Then as I eat it, I start from the middle where the two meet. I start on the end and slowly blend the beans, the broth, the rice...into this great, wonderful little first bite....

And then mmmmmmm....I just get busy and by the time I am done it is a mixture of delights and then it is gone. I always have extra and then I either eat it the same way.
With leftovers also, my Brazilian friends taught me this, Drain the beans and add to the rice in a pan, then crack two eggs and cook all together. It makes a great breakfast.

I hope you one day, find where you might give one of my creations a whirl. If you do, drop me a line I would love to know how it went.

I bought an institutional size can of peaches the other day. With fruit being so iffy sometimes, I love them to have fruit for lunch. So I cup my own. I put them in the freezer and they take them for lunch and by lunch they thaw. So win, win.
But back to this can of peaches, I want to snatch some out of it first. Thinking a nice peach cobbler would be good. Thinking also crock pot. Will get back to you after I do it.

Well I am sure I probably won't be back here until after Mother's Day.
So everyone have a great day. Mother's of all types, please enjoy the day.
My mom, always said that she celebrated Mother's Day every day.

So let me leave you with her saying.
"Think of Good things and these shall be the things you think upon."

Keep it Simple.