Ah, rice. It’s a simple, filling, economical, and healthy side item that can take on many flavors and textures. It can be sweet (rice pudding) or savory (charred corn risotto, anyone?) or both at the same time (biryani, for instance). When mixed with beans, it is a powerhouse of amino acids, fiber, protein, and overall tasty goodness. There’s a reason why it’s so prolific in so many different cultures and cuisines. Lots of reasons, actually.
Brown rice and white rice are nutritionally pretty similar, although brown rice comes in slightly ahead in what it offers without enhancement assistance. White rice is basically brown rice with a couple/three layers removed and then companies tend to “enrich” these grains to put back some of the nutrients that were lost. So you’re not experiencing a large fall-off in nutrition if you prefer white rice over brown, but it requires a proactive approach from growers/sellers to get there. People often say brown rice is not their favorite thing because it’s bland or dry, but I guarantee you this Cuban mojo-style rice will not lack for flavor and the black bean juice that the rice soaks up ensures that your end product will be anything but dry.
Brown rice and white rice are nutritionally pretty similar, although brown rice comes in slightly ahead in what it offers without enhancement assistance. White rice is basically brown rice with a couple/three layers removed and then companies tend to “enrich” these grains to put back some of the nutrients that were lost. So you’re not experiencing a large fall-off in nutrition if you prefer white rice over brown, but it requires a proactive approach from growers/sellers to get there. People often say brown rice is not their favorite thing because it’s bland or dry, but I guarantee you this Cuban mojo-style rice will not lack for flavor and the black bean juice that the rice soaks up ensures that your end product will be anything but dry.
My normal process for creating a dish is to let the seasons and ingredients on hand dictate the final product. Well, that, and the belief that whatever I make should be relatively healthy and taste good, of course. Unfortunately, I was down to the last of my CSA box ingredients and had a can of black beans, a big Costco container of brown rice, an onion, some garlic, cilantro, an orange, and my normal array of spices. Mojo is a (primarily Cuban) mixture of garlic, onion, spices, and orange/citrus...so that struck me as the way to go with this.
Rice is easy when you’ve got a rice cooker (imagine that, right?). You measure out the rice, cover it with water, and turn it on until it says it’s done. Note: Any purchases made through my Amazon links will benefit me with a small percentage of the sales...and I appreciate if you purchase Amazon items through my links since it benefits me and doesn’t cost you extra. Thanks!
Rice is easy when you’ve got a rice cooker (imagine that, right?). You measure out the rice, cover it with water, and turn it on until it says it’s done. Note: Any purchases made through my Amazon links will benefit me with a small percentage of the sales...and I appreciate if you purchase Amazon items through my links since it benefits me and doesn’t cost you extra. Thanks!
Anyhow, rice cookers were really a wonderful invention, and this is the one I use:
In the meantime, I took the black beans and added onions, garlic, cumin, chili powder, a touch of white and black pepper, the juice of an orange, and some minced jalapeno (also from my CSA box).
After the rice was done cooking, I combined the black beans and the rice in the black bean pot so that the rice would soak up the bean goodness. This is actually a trick I learned from a five-time consecutive James Beard Award Finalist chef (Hugo Ortega, who has a cool back story I won’t get into now) who cooks authentic Mexican dishes. In other words, this wasn’t a purely Cuban-inspired dish.
I cut some corn off the cob and sauteed it in some olive oil and spritzed it with the juice of a lime. This, along with a generous helping of cilantro (which you can add at your discretion, as people tend to either love or hate this...or are genetically predisposed to hating it) were tossed in and I added a touch of chicken stock to loosen the mixture up just a bit before serving. As you recall, we’re trying to avoid that dry rice phenomenon. Salt and pepper to taste at the very end before serving.
As you can probably surmise, this dish packs tons of flavor and goes well with just about any sort of fresh seafood or other protein. I served mine with vegetable kabobs – squash, zucchini, mushrooms, grilled cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers. If you already have some cooked rice, this shouldn’t take you more than about 10-12 minutes to make from start to finish, and it will feed quite a few hungry mouths. In my case, it feeds 1-2 hungry mouths for 2-3 meals. That’s a lot of mouths and math. Just figure on about 6-8 servings total and you should be in pretty good shape. I hope you enjoy it – I know I did!
You can click here for the printable recipe PDF or you can go to my recipe page for this recipe and many more that are equally as awesome. You may have noticed there is a way to search for recipes based on ingredients or type (on the right hand side of the recipe page). As more and more recipes are added this should become a pretty nice list of go-to dishes for you. The ability to search by ingredient will also allow you to find something you’ve got on hand and turn it into something I’ve made in my blog posts/recipes.
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