Rice and beans: It’s the weeknight, budget-friendly, bulk-bin staple meal that even the most timid home cook can attempt with a certain level of confidence. Rice and beans is there for us when budgets are tight and pantries are bare, and it’s even a nutritionally complete meal. But rice and beans can get a little boring, even when we lean on egregious amounts of hot sauce to spice things up. So we’ve turned to a few chefs, asking their advice on how to keep our rice-and-bean dinners from driving us towards insanity, or boredom, or takeout.
Ashley Christensen, Poole’s Diner, Death & Taxes, and more
Add turkey confit.
This past year, Christensen hosted roughly 20 guests at her house for Thanksgiving, and confited the legs of three turkeys in duck fat; the leftovers are still in the freezer, and she maintains that the dark meat confit is “so rich and luxurious, it can really turn any pantry item into something super delicious in very little time.” Make a note to definitely do this next Thanksgiving.
Harissa makes everything better. Photo: Peden + Munk
Michael Solomonov, Zahav
"Definitely fermented harif, which is the hebrew word for harissa that literally means "spicy." Harif brings that good punch of heat, making it the perfect compliment to dishes that are more mild in flavor—like a dish of rice and beans. Harif is a combination of some of my favorite spices that are essential to my cooking. It’s a blend of sharp and peppery coriander, caraway, and cumin. Fermenting the harif actually brings out the garlic notes, which makes it even more delicious. At Zahav, we coat our eggplant in harif before it's grilled al ha'esh. The smoke from the coals combined with the nuances of spicy harif tastes to me, like Israel."
Amanda Cohen, Dirt Candy
Blend up a gremolata.
"I’d make some sort of gremolata, some sort of parsley-garlic-chili pepper thing. Just really fast easy get it in the blender or the food processor or just pour it on top. Because it’s rice and beans, you need something peppy in there. I’d probably add a lot of Thai green chile peppers. So I’d cut some of those, add olive oil, and then because it’s so green, instead of lemon I would actually do lime. And then really whatever herbs we have—I love cilantro and parsley. We don’t do a lot of rice at the restaurant, but it’s what we eat a lot for family meal!"
