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When visitors ask a Belizean what the national dish is, usually the response will be “rice and beans, stewed chicken, and potato salad.” The other day I made some Stewed Beans. I used a pound of Camellia dried red kidney beans to make these Stewed Beans…and do you know what you have when you cook up a pound of dried beans? Enough food to feed an army!
I used some of my stewed beans to create a delicious rice and beans dish, a la Belizean style. In addition to the stewed beans, the ingredients include garlic, onion, cilantro, fresh thyme, coconut milk, chicken broth, rice, and seasonings.
I have made a fair few rice dishes since I began cooking, but I had never included thyme in them. This was a revelation to me. The thyme really helped to give the rice and beans an incredible flavor. And may I say that the aroma from this pot of rice and beans was absolutely amazing.
This will definitely end up back on our plates in the future. Although it is preferable to use stewed beans that you cook up, for ease of preparation you could also use canned stewed red beans.
Simple, easy, delicious! I hope you will try making these fantastic rice and beans, a la Belizean style!
For a true Belizean style dinner, serve this accompanied by delicious Belizean Stewed Chicken. 🙂
Cheers!
Grace
Belizean Rice and Beans
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice
- 1/2 onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 cup stewed beans use canned or see my recipe for stewed beans: https://explorecookeat.com/belizean-stewed-beans/
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup chicken broth plus additional may be needed
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tbsp cilantro diced
- 1/2 ts salt plus additional to taste
- 1/4 ts pepper plus additional to taste
- 1 tbsp Sazonador Total by Goya
Instructions
- Heat up olive oil in a med sized saucepan (med high). Add garlic and onion, and saute for around 2 minutes.
- Add rice, coconut milk, chicken broth, thyme, Sazonador Total seasoning, salt, pepper, stewed beans and some liquid, mix and bring to the boil.
- Reduce heat to med-low to medium so that the beans and rice are on a low simmer, and then cover and cook for 25 minutes, checking every so often to ensure the mixture does not dry out. If it is dry, at a little more chicken broth or water (around 1/4 cup), stir, and recover. Continue this until the rice is tender. You may need to cook it for a few additional minutes, but I shouldn't think it will take more than 35 minutes.
- Once the rice is tender, stir in the cilantro, and then taste and additional additional seasonings if you like.
- Remove from the heat, and allow to rest for about 10 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs and then your dish is ready to enjoy!
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