Black Beans and Cilantro Rice

I LOVE black beans. Let me just get that out there. They are something that I have discovered late in life, but I really love them.

Can I tell you what else I love? My new camera! I'm still discovering the things it can do, but it is way cool.

Look at this neat trick the camera can do. Here's the original picture (Rominal took this tonight after dinner):

And it made a pencil drawing! Super cool!

Although it almost looks like one of those pictures that shows you where all of your age spots are. Maybe this isn't a good thing.

Ok - enough play time - on to the recipe.

After all of the sweets from the holidays, I need to get back on the weight loss wagon. This meal is very low in fat and my family will still eat it.

I start with this - (and I try to get no or reduced salt whenever possible so that I can control the sodium myself)

I put just a tiny amount of olive oil in my pan - maybe 1-2 tsp.

And then I add 1 chopped red onion and (only because I happened to have it on hand this time) 1 chopped red pepper. Normally I don't add a red pepper.

Let them sweat together in the pan. In the meantime, I chop up a bunch of cilantro. I would normally use way more than this, because I happen to love cilantro, but this was all that I had on hand today.

Chop up the cilantro well. Bailey is helping me demonstrate the chopped cilantro.

Once the onion and red pepper have gotten a bit soft and to your liking, add in the 2 cans of black beans (I drained one can of beans and dumped the the other can in whole - just because), and 1 can of chopped tomatoes (do not drain).

At this point I also added kosher salt, garlic powder, cumin, pepper. Then let it all simmer for a bit.


Right before I serve, I add the juice of 1-2 limes, and a ton of cilantro. There's no point in adding cilantro prior because you want the green bits to show up and they kinda deteriorate after a while.

To my cooked rice, I added a tiny amount of butter and some more cilantro.

Top off the rice with the black beans and a pinch more cilantro. This is how Bailey likes it.

To make this more of a meal for Rominal, I also made some turkey sausage. Yes, turkey - I'm trying to lighten things up, remember?

I originally had a picture of the whole turkey link on the side of the beans, and it just looked wrong, so here's my bowl with the turkey sliced inside.

This is a very filling and super good meal.