Dinner Friday night turned out better than expected, so I’m sharing the recipe. I had planned to make black beans and rice, with lime, avocado, and chives–standard it’s-Friday-I’m-tired fare.
When it came time to cook, however, the avocado wasn’t ripe enough, so I went pantry hunting. A salsa seemed like the best bet, but we didn’t have peppers, tomatoes or cilantro. We did have two rapidly aging yellow mangos no one seemed to want, however, and a red onion. The result was an amazing mix of textures and spicy-sweet-salty flavor.
Black Beans with Chive Rice & Mango Salsa
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 cup long-grained white rice or brown rice, uncooked
1 15.5 oz can Goya black beans
1 to 2 tbsps sliced chives
For mango salsa:
2 ripe small yellow mangos, peeled & diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced fine & soaked 5 minutes in cold water
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp red chili flakes
salt, to taste
Preparation
Rice
Cook 1 cup rice (4 cups cooked). Follow package instructions, or use my method for perfect rice:
Add rice to saucepan. Add water; determine the correct amount of water by using the knuckle method. Cover pan, put over high heat, and wait until the lid shudders from the foaming water & steam. Turn heat to low, and let cook 15 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and let sit 15 minutes more, without removing the lid.
When rice has finished cooking, add 1 to 2 tbsps chives to the rice, and mix well.
Beans
When rice has 15 minutes left, heat the black beans according to can instructions. I love Goya black beans, and they’re available almost everywhere. They also have a lot of salt, which means you shouldn’t add much to the rice or salsa.
Salsa
Combine mango and red onion, watching the proportions (you want about a 5:1 ratio of mango to onion). Add lime juice and red pepper flakes, mix well, and salt to taste. Combine all three parts in individual bowls, garnish with chives, and serve.