Crockpot Egyptian Lentils and Rice

adapted from the International Vegetarian Union's Egyptian Lentils and Rice

Serves 6 (main dish servings)
Soaking time: none • Passive cooking time: 8 hours on low, 4 on high • Active cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup brown lentils
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 cup rice (I used short grain white rice)
5-6 cups water or homemade vegetable stock


Steps:

1. Measure the olive oil into the bottom of the crock pot, making sure to coat the bottom. Turn the crock pot on the highest setting and add onions. Allow onions to warm up and get soft in the oil, approximately 10 - 15 minutes.

2. Add all remaining ingredients, including water or stock.



3. If leaving the crock pot going all day, turn to low and cook for 8 hours. If you want it done quicker, cook for 4 hours on high. Stir once an hour, if possible.


Notes: Start with 5 cups of water or stock. You can always add more if the recipe is too thick. This recipe called for 1 tsp of salt, which I would omit next time around since I used chicken stock (which is often salty).

I love crock pot recipes. There is just something about throwing a bunch of ingredients in a cylinder and then coming home to dinner when you get home from work. This is the first beans and rice recipe I've made in the crock pot and I will definitely be doing so again. It's so easy and creates a hearty dish for dinner or lunches. We served ours with some tortillas, but I think it would be great with pita bread or naan or similar leavened flatbread.

Historical context: Egyptian cuisine is a rich and varied blend of Mediterranean and Middle East flavors. Lentils are extremely popular in Egyptian dishes, and this dish is no exception. Egypt receives very little rainfall, and must depend on crops that can grow in desert like conditions, or in the Nile's flood plains. This recipe is similar to the Egyptian dish, Koushari, which contains lentils, rice, macaroni, and chickpeas in a tomato sauce. (I'm sure I will be trying that recipe out as well.)

Chana Masala

adapted from Rice of Life's Chana Masala

Serves 4 (main dish servings)
Soaking time: 8 hours+ • Passive cooking time: 20 minutes • Active cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil or ghee
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 small red onion, diced
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 lb dried (or 2 15 oz cans) garbanzo beans
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
juice of 1 lemon
a few sprigs cilantro, chopped (for garnish)


Steps:

1. Rinse and sort the garbanzo beans and soak for at least eight hours. When beans have been rehydrated, drain and rinse with cold water.

2. In a large wok or skillet, heat olive oil or ghee at medium high heat. Add turmeric. Add onion and cook until golden brown and fragrant, about five minutes.

3. Add tomato paste, garam masala, ground coriander and cumin. Cook for another five minutes, and stir to form a nice paste.

4. Add garbanzo beans (with about 1/2 cup water). Add coconut milk and stir. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for another ten minutes or so. The beans will be saucey. Remove from heat.

5. Add salt and lemon juice. Serve on plate with basmati rice. Add cilantro as garnish.




Notes: Ameet Maturu of Rice of Life was kind enough to let us share his recipe for Chana Masala with you. We served our Chana Masala with Phul Gobi (bell peppers and cauliflower) and brown rice. This was one of those recipes where I made a mistake and added the whole can of tomato paste instead of 2 TB as the recipe called for. Instead of freaking out about it, I turned it in to a positive by adding some aromatic coconut milk we had on hand from the Gado Gado recipe. It added a bit of depth to the sauce that I was quite happy about.

This recipe also marks the first time I have ever used ghee. I made my first batch of ghee and then used it for the recipe, and let me tell you, it made such a difference! Such a rich and delicious taste! I highly recommend cooking with ghee, especially for Indian recipes.

Historical context: Chana Masala is a North Indian / Pakistani chickpea curry dish. I have seen this described as "comfort food" time and time again, and it is no wonder that this dish remains one of the most popular dishes at Indian restaurants worldwide!

Indonesian Gado Gado

adapted from the International Vegetarian Union's Gado Gado

Serves 8 (main dish servings)
Passive cooking time: 30 minutes • Active cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1/2 pound small potatoes, boiled in their skins until tender
1 cup shredded cabbage, boiled for 5 minutes and drained
1/2 pound carrots, sliced, boiled for 5 minutes and drained
1/2 pound bean sprouts, boiled for 2 minutes and drained
1/4 pound green beans, cut into 2-inch lengths, boiled for 5 minutes and drained
1 cup diced jicama (optional)
Peanut Sauce (see recipe below)
14 oz firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, and sauted
2 tablespoons peanut oil
3 tablespoons Crispy Fried Shallots (shhh, I used French's fried onions from the grocery store)
2 cups uncooked brown rice (I prefer short grain)

Peanut Sauce
1/3 c peanut butter
1-2 tsp sambal ulek or other chili paste
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1-1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground galangal or 1-1/2 tsp finely shredded galangal (I substituted standard ginger with fine results)
1/2 tsp tamarind concentrate or 2 tsp lemon juice
1 T soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3/4 c coconut milk


Steps:

1. Wash and cut the potatoes and drop them into 2 quarts boiling water. Let simmer about 15 minutes before adding other vegetables. Add cabbage, carrots, and green beans and simmer for 5 minutes. Add bean sprouts and simmer for 2 minutes before draining all vegetables.

2. While veggies are simmering, bring 3 cups water and 1 tsp salt to a boil. Add brown rice and bring to a boil again. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for approximately 20 - 25 minutes, or until water is absorbed by rice.


3. While veggies and rice are simmering, start peanut sauce. In a medium sauce pan, combine all ingredients and bring just to a boil. Make sure peanut butter is completely melted within sauce.

4. Cut tofu into 1/2 inch pieces. Heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil in a skillet and saute tofu chunks until golden brown.


5. With veggies drained, rice done, jicama diced, and tofu sauted, assemble the Gado Gado. Scoop 1/2 cup of rice into a big bowl. Add veggies, jicama, and spoon peanut sauce over the top. Top off with tofu and fried onions.






Notes: I'm going to be honest: this recipe is complicated. I found it difficult to stay on top of all the tasks and ensure things got done at the same time. This is definitely a "two-cook" recipe. But that being said, this recipe is also so amazingly delicious that I would definitely make it again. At first glance, this doesn't seem like a beans and rice recipe, but rest assured, it is. It contains both green beans and soybean curd (tofu). If you don't normally stock these vegetables, this dish is also not particularly cheap. We just happened to get every vegetable except the jicama in our CSA veggie box this week, and knew we had to make this recipe. I served this dish warm, but I'm sure it would also taste great cold.

Historical context: In Bahasa (language of Indonesia), the word gado-gado means potpourri or medley. In Indonesia, Gado Gado is a street food, and is often sold by mobile food carts or in open air eateries. It is a traditional dish, thought to be created when Portuguese and Spanish traders brought nuts and chilies to Asia in the 16th century. Gado-gado is considered a salad where cooks throw in whatever vegetables are fresh and in season. It can be made with whatever leftovers you have on hand and it has been said that its beauty lies in its versatility.
Source: Wall Street Journal

Day two of Nicaraguan Rice and Beans

Day two and the Rice and Beans still taste great. In fact, I would say the flavors intensified overnight. To mix it up, we made gallo pinto tacos with diced avocado on top. Then later we scrambled 2 eggs and and chopped some cilantro and mixed it in with the gallo pinto. Both were delicious, and were used with ingredients we already had on hand.

Nicaraguan Rice and Beans

adapted from the International Vegetarian Union's Nicaraguan Rice and Beans

Serves 6, or 4 "hearty" appetites
Soaking time: at least 4 hours • Passive cooking time: 2 hours •
Active cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup dried pinto beans
1 bay leaf
1 small onion, peeled
1 clove
2 garlic cloves, peeled
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
fresh black pepper

Steps:

1. Sort through the dried beans and remove any dirt, rocks, or beans with holes. Rinse the dried beans in a colander.
Cover the beans with water in a large pot and let soak at least 4 hours.

2. At this point, the beans should be mostly reconstituted. Drain the beans and place in a large pot with 2 quarts of water.
Add the bay leaf, the whole onion, the clove, and 2 peeled garlic cloves. Gradually bring the beans to a boil, and skim off foam that forms. Reduce heat, and simmer beans uncovered until tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.


3. Check that beans are tender, and drain beans and rinse with cold water. Discard the onion, bay leaf, clove, and garlic.

4. About 20 minutes before beans are set to be finished, bring 2.5 cups water and 1/2 tsp. salt to a boil in a large saucepan. Add rice and return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let rice simmer, about 18 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit uncovered 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.

5. About 5 minutes before rice and beans are set to be finished, chop the onion and heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion and brown, approximately 5 minutes. Add rice and beans, and cook until rice starts to brown. Serve in bowls, and add fresh cracked pepper on top.




Notes: This recipe is long on time, but short on active cooking, which I appreciate. On this blog, we will be prioritizing dried beans and this is a perfect recipe to start with as the beans derive much of their flavor from the seasoning in the pot during the long simmer phase. You could actually taste the clove flavor in the beans! In the future, I would probably reduce the oil during the final saute. We added a little Tapatio to our bowls for an extra kick of spice.

Historical context: In Nicaragua, this dish is called Gallo Pinto, and is the "national dish". When the rice and beans are cooked together, the rice takes on some of the color of the beans resulting in a speckled appearance. Gallo Pinto translated means "mottled rooster", which is similar to the speckled beans and rice. Variations exist in almost all Central and South American countries, and we plan to explore each of those in other recipes.

Introduction

And so it begins. My husband and I conceived of this blog one day when we were discussing ways in which we could cut our monthly expenses. We soon noted that we are already doing many of the things frugal thought-leaders recommend to cut costs, but found we often splurge on food purchases. 

We discussed common cuisines from around the world, and came up with the idea of a diet of beans and rice for dinner, and leftovers for lunch. Not only is this dish inexpensive (especially when buying in bulk), but it is also quick, easy, and simple to prepare. It seems that no other dish is more adopted around the world. From the bean stews of Africa, Europe, and the Americas, to Moros y Cristianos in Spain, Cuba, and Mexico, to the lentil and chickpea dishes of India, and Cajun Red Beans and Rice of the American South, we intend to explore this versatile dish and post our results. 

The first dish we will be cooking tonight for dinner is Nicaraguan Rice and Beans, courtesy of the International Vegetarian Union. Welcome. We hope you will enjoy exploring the humble bean and modest rice with us.