3 delightful recipes with red beans and rice

More than a fashion trend, healthy food has always offered a huge variety of options. The goal is to give your body all the nutrients, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber to have a good condition. You can achieve this by cooking with ingredients that blend perfectly together and give you the possibility of improving your health.

You only need to recognize the main components of each food and know how to combine them for having a balanced diet. Mainly, the body needs proteins, carbohydrates, and fiber. You can find all of these ingredients in the food you usually include on your shopping list, you just need to learn the proper way of using them.

Besides, one additional point to consider is that by knowing how to pair different foods, you can even save some money. So, you get more benefits for your body, as well as your budget.

There are popular combinations of food offering multiple ways of cooking delicious meals for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  To name a few, boiled egg and vegetables, sardines and spinach salad, carrots or tomatoes with some fat sources like olive oil, green plants and legumes with citric fruits, and the most famous rice and beans.

One powerful comfort combo

Rice and beans are considered the comfort combo par excellence. This combination gives the complete protein source your body needs. It is a dish with essential amino acids, high in fiber content, and low in fat.

You can enjoy the benefits of this delicious combo by using a countless variety of recipes. There are as many combinations as types of rice and beans. Your creativity can fly when cooking white rice and black beans, wild rice and chickpeas, yellow rice and red beans, and so much more. You can make salads, entrees, side dishes, and full meals. Try some recipes at minuterice.com/recipes/red-beans-and-rice/

Or, you can also get your hands over these 3 tasty ideas with red beans and rice:

1.   Red beans, corn, and rice salad

Servings: 8            Prep time: 5 minutes                 Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of pre-cooked yellow rice.
• 1 tablespoon of water.
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
• 1 can of red beans.
• 1 can whole kernel corn.
• 2 teaspoons of lime juice.
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin.

Preparation:

1. Heat the rice. In a saucepan, put rice with water and cook on low heat for 2 minutes.
2. Stir very well and let it cool.
3. In a salad bowl, mix rice, black beans, and corn.
4. Add lime juice and cumin, mix everything.
5. Serve.

2.   Easy red beans and rice

Servings: 4            Prep time: 5 minutes                 Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:   

• 1 cup of instant brown rice.
• 1 cup of water.
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
• 1 chopped onion.
• 1 can of red beans.
• 1 can of stewed tomatoes.
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano.
• ½ teaspoon of garlic powder.

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan, put vegetable oil, heat on medium-high.
2. Add the onion and cook until it is tender.
3. Incorporate beans, tomatoes, dried oregano, and garlic powder. Stir very well.
4. Add water and rice.
5. Boil over high heat. Reduce to medium heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Let stand.
7. Serve.

3.   Rice and red beans soup

Servings: 6            Prep time: 15 minutes               Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:   

• 1/2 cup of instant white rice.
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
• 1 chopped onion.
• 5 chopped garlic.
• 2 diced carrots.
• 1 diced bell red pepper.
• 1 diced stalk celery.
• 6 cups of vegetable broth.
• 1 can of diced tomatoes.
• 2 can of red beans.
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
• 1/2 teaspoon of dry thyme.
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano.
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder.
• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika.
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin.

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan, put olive oil and heat over medium-high.
2. Add onion, garlic, and carrots. Cook until they are tender.
3. Incorporate bell pepper, celery, tomatoes, red beans, and vegetable broth. Stir very well.
4. Add black pepper, salt, thyme, oregano, chili powder, smoked paprika, and cumin.
5. Boil and add instant white rice.
6. Cook until rice is ready.
7. Serve.

Rice and beans are like a blank slate, you can add whatever you have in your pantry, and you will always get a unique and tasty dish.