How to Make the Best Black Beans and Rice! This classic Latin-style side dish is perfect with tacos or as a lunch idea.
Black beans and rice are a classic Latin-style side dish: but there are so many different ways to make them! There are two main styles you can think of. First there are Cuban black beans, spicy and flavorful, served with rice. Then you have black beans tossed with rice and green pepper and flavored with cumin, lime and coriander. That is the style Alex and I created for you in this recipe! It’s the perfect accompaniment to tacos or as a lunch idea (it’s great for a weekday meal). Let’s go!
How to make the best black beans and rice
Turns out there’s no way to make black beans and rice. When you think of sauce-style black beans that you would serve with rice, you go to Cuban black beans. This is one of our favorite recipes and we often serve it as a main course. But this one: It’s a mix of black beans and long grain white rice that makes a perfect side dish! Here are the characteristics of the best black beans and rice:
- White long grain rice. The long grain rice is traditional here and contrasts perfectly with the fluffy black beans. Although we often use brown rice in our cooking, white rice is nice here because of the color contrast (and it cooks faster). Below are tips for cooking rice!
- onion, pepper and garlic. Using these herbs adds great flavor to the simple dish.
- A mixture of butter and olive oil. The combination of butter and olive oil brings a great rich flavor! If you’re vegan or plant-based, you can easily replace the butter with more olive oil. But the butter adds a savory note that has a nice undertone.
- Cumin and Lime. As with many Latin American recipes, naturally earthy cumin and zesty lime round out the flavors.
It sounds simple, but overall these flavors really pop! You can make it in about 30 minutes if you break it down like this: start with the white rice, chop the veggies, start with the pan and add the cooked rice at the end.
Tips for cooking rice
Unfortunately, rice is easy to screw up! You’re going to want to make it perfect for this black bean and rice recipe because porridge plus bean porridge would be a disaster! (Ew.) Luckily, Alex and I have a method that gets rice perfectly al dente every time. It’s called the pasta method.
Go towards How to cook basmati rice for the recipe! Instead of cooking rice the usual way where you simmer until all the water is absorbed, cook it like pasta! Boil the water, then add the rice and cook until tender. When done, drain the rice and let it sit in the covered pot in the steamer for about 5 minutes. There you have it: perfectly cooked rice! Another benefit: if you use this method for brown rice, it will load faster.
How to Cook Black Beans: Two Ways
You can easily use canned black beans for this black bean and rice recipe and the result is amazing. However, if you’re looking for an excuse to cook beans from scratch, can we listen? If you have the time, here are some benefits of homemade baked beans:
- It’s tastier. Canned beans are fine, but homemade beans are Great. They have a firmer texture and high flavor.
- It’s less expensive! It can be around ⅓ the price of cooking your beans at home.
There are two ways to cook beans at home. Our favorite is to use an Instant Pot if you have one. It’s very fast: it takes about 1 hour to cook dried beans! Our other favorite method is using a Dutch Oven: this takes about 1.5 hours. If you don’t have a casserole, you can also cook them on the stovetop: this takes 2 to 3 hours and also requires a 14-hour soak. For this reason we prefer the first two methods!
Best Ways to Serve Black Beans and Rice
There are so many ways to serve black beans and rice! Since they take about 30 minutes to prepare, they’re great for entertaining. Or prepare them in advance and reheat them: just add them to a pan and heat over medium-high until piping hot. The Best Ways to Serve Black Beans and Rice:
- Enchiladas. Try them with our vegetarian quinoa enchiladas.
- tacos! Secure. Pair it with epic 5-minute tacos, the best jackfruit tacos, or shrimp tacos with cilantro sauce.
- For lunch! Prepare your weekend meals, chill them and take them to the office. It’s a good room temperature or even cold. Top with salsa.
- With pizza. Why not? Try our best taco pizza or our best mexican pizza.
- On a salad. Toss it over veggies, add corn and Green Goddess dressing, and you have a delicious salad.
- In lettuce wraps. Use leftover lettuce wraps with mango salsa!
This black bean and rice recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.
The description
How to Make the Best Black Beans and Rice! This classic Latin-style side dish is perfect with tacos or as a lunch idea.
- 3 cups cooked (1 cup dry) white long grain rice
- 1 medium sweet onion
- 1 green pepper
- 6 Garlic cloves
- 2 15-ounce cans of black beans or (or 3 cups cooked black beans or Instant Pot)
- 2 tablespoons salted butter (vegan substitute for olive oil)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons Lime juice (juice from 1 Lime)
- Fresh coriander for garnish
- Start the rice: Use How to Cook Basmati Rice or Instant Pot White Rice.
- Chop the onion. Cut the peppers into small cubes. Chop the garlic.
- Drain and rinse beans.
- In a large skillet, heat butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. Once melted, add onion, peppers and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent and lightly browned, 10 minutes. Add the beans, cumin, oregano, and kosher salt and stir. Cook for 3 minutes, until hot and fragrant, then stir in the rice for 1 minute, until heated through.
- Remove from the heat and add the lime juice. Serve garnished with fresh coriander.
- Category: garnish
- Method: Cook
- Kitchen: Latin
Keywords: Black beans and rice
