Poverty Nutrition II: Beans & Rice (And Their Infinite Variety)

Having spent several years as a fellow starving grad student alongside Dr. Barrilleaux, who wrote an excellent post on creating cheap and nutritious breakfasts using eggs, I was pleased to be asked to follow her in discussing affordable nutrition for graduate students.  I think that the perfect food for lunch or dinner for a hungry student (or for anyone- this is what I eat for lunch on most weekdays) is a combination of beans, rice and vegetables.

Beans are both cheap and ridiculously nutritious. A can of black beans, for example, costs about 79 cents and contains about 3 servings of beans. Dried black beans are even more affordable- costing about $1 for 12 servings (provided that you can spare a couple hours to cook a big batch to eat during the week). Each serving is packed with protein, fiber, folate, antioxidants, and lots of other vitamins.  And as for the bad wrap that beans get (we all know the rhyme), I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that for most people, the more you eat them, the less they affect you.

Rice is the perfect accompaniment to beans because together they form a complete protein. This means that the two contain all of the amino acids that a person needs. Brown rice is much better for you than white rice, because most of the nutrients inherent in brown rice are stripped away when it is processed to become white rice. Brown rice is also very affordable- a $2 bag contains about 19 servings. A good time-saving idea for rice is to cook a lot of it, then freeze it in individual servings that you can steam when you are ready to eat them.

I know that the idea rice and beans sounds pretty plain- but, in fact, they are the perfect blank slate for a number of delicious meals. I’ve included some of my favorites below. (I’m going to skip the cooking instructions for dried beans and rice because you can find them on the package. I tend to simply heat canned beans on my stove or in the microwave when I make these meals for myself.)

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Tex Mex Rice Bowls

Black beans and brown rice topped with any of the following: cilantro, lime juice, salsa, chopped tomato, sauteed onions and garlic, mushrooms (sauteed or fresh), chopped green onions, avocado, cheese, or sour cream.

Black Beans and Saffron Rice

I’ll admit that this particular rice is probably not brown rice, but it is delicious and ridiculously easy because it comes in a package at the grocery store (5 servings for $1). Of course this means that it is saltier than rice you season yourself- so consider it a “sometimes food.” Top this combination with black olives, green onions, and chopped tomatoes or salsa. If you have a little ham, you can chop it up and throw it in the mix as well.

BBQ Bean Bowl

Black (or red) beans and brown rice topped with BBQ sauce, green onions, mushrooms, and pieces of chicken.

White beans and Kale

This is my favorite winter meal. White beans sauteed with hot sauce, lemon juice, onion, garlic, Kale and topped with lemon zest, and Parmesan; served atop brown rice. This is also good with a little Italian turkey sausage.

Non-Traditional Red Beans and Rice

I basically butcher a beloved New Orleans dish, but it’s very tasty. Red beans and brown rice with little smokey cocktail sausages (again, a sometimes food, based on salt and fat content), seasoned with hot sauce, bay leaf, and rosemary.

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If you want to skip the rice because beans are delicious with all sorts of things things, you can try the following:

• Garbanzo beans stir fried with Kale, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
• Baked beans on top of a microwaved or roasted sweet potato.
• Baked beans on cheese toast (preferably whole wheat) with chopped tomatoes.
• White beans mixed with diced green chilies , cayenne, and cumin make white chili. Top with cheese and/or pieces of chicken.
• Black beans, salsa, and cheese in a whole wheat or blue corn tortilla.

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Shelly Gallender received a  Master’s Degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Tulane University. Having achieved escape velocity from graduate school, she currently works in the Oil and Gas Industry. In her free time, Shelly is an avid runner, a decent cook, and a voracious reader.

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.For more Poverty Nutrition Recipes, see A Fugue in Egg Minor

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