Rice and Carrots

I found this in my Azz Cardfile, the only notation as to where I got it was the Fat Free Vegan Yahoogroup. No name or date. The person who posted it says s/he thinks it's from the Fat Free Vegan site, but I just did a search on the regular site and the blog, and while nothing by the name "Rice and Carrots" pops up, zillions of recipes that contain both rice and carrots do, so I'll credit this to Susan, anyway. She's a much better cook that I'll ever be, so it's only fair.

This is exactly as I saved it:

I think this came from fatfree.com, but I don't know for sure...it's really yummy, though:

Put 2 cups of rice into a pot with the following:

3/4 tsp. ground turmeric
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
4 cups water (or whatever ratio of water your bag of rice recommends)
1 1/4 tsps. salt (optional)

Get this to cooking and then work on the following, placing them into a large skillet:

chop a large onion
chop a green bell pepper (I often find myself short on bell peppers -- I've used 3 celery stalks, a small zucchini, 1/2 cup hominy, etc., whatever else I've got lying around!)
2 or 3 diced carrots
2 or 3 diced or grated cloves of garlic
2 tsps. ground cumin
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 can black beans
1/2 cup water
as much Jalapeno or other hot pepper as you like
Salt (optional)

Simmer it all with a lid until the carrots are done to your liking. Spoon over rice.

A dolop of plain soy yogurt is good on top. Or, sometimes we put hot mustards over top...or just eat it plain...it's pretty good stuff whichever way!

Also...tastes good with brown, white, or wild rice. :D

I went to put on some Uncle Ben's brown rice into my rice cooker and saw the bags I had in the pantry were all marked February 2012 and every one I opened smelled rancid. Darn! That's what I get for taking Jeff Novick's advice and using Success Rice for almost everything I cooked the past year or 2! Too bad I was out of it and since the grocery store I went to this morning no longer carries the brown rice I have to hit a different store later this week and hope they have it in. The only other rice in that store is the store brand version of Minute Rice, and it doesn't really taste all that great.

So I started tearing the pantry apart looking for rice. I had a 10 pound bag of white rice that I use when cooking for my son, but since this is a veggie-heavy meal I wanted a heartier starch, not fluffy white rice. Aha! I spied the Amazon box in a corner - the case of Lundberg Jubilee rice mix! I love this stuff, and it would be perfect for this meal. Ack! It takes more than twice as long to cook as the Uncle Ben's! I measure it out and pour it into the rice cooker, and the darn thing starts overflowing. This just isn't my day! Off it goes into one of my soup pots to cook.

So now we wait. The kitchen smells wonderful, between those spicy veggies and the spiced up rice. It's driving my husband mad having to wait an extra half hour, but I assured him the wait will be worth it.

Thanks for another wonderful recipe, Susan!