Seeking Recipe for Vegetarian Refried Beans and Mexican Rice

My grandmother, my mother and now I make a very simple recipe of beans that we eat with rice, tortillas, tamales, nachos, etc...

Buy pinto beans in the grocery and read on the back how to cook on stove top. You will be boiling for a couple of hours. Go through the beans before cooking as occasionally a rock gets in there. After beans are cooked scoop them out of the water (it's okay to get some of the water as it keeps them moist) and put them in a cuisanart (or mash by hand) with a little bit of your favorite cheese. Voila........tasty and healthy!

I like to short cut when I can. I buy vegetarian beans in a can. I rinse them and smash em. Put them in a pan with enough water to make them pastey. I might add butter or olive oil to make them a little creamier. I add garlic pepper, cumin,and chili powder, salt and pepper. But I like things spicey. The cumin goes especially well when making refried black beans. For mexican rice - We like minute rice with mexican rotel mixed in.

I have yet to find the perfect red rice recipe, but I have a killer *green* rice recipe. Just sub the chicken broth for veggie broth (I do both, depending on who's going to be eating it).

Arroz Verde
SERVES 4
This Mexican holiday rice is adapted from Aída Gabilondo's Mexican Family Cooking (Fawcett Columbine, 1986).

1 small white onion, peeled and quartered


2 poblano chiles, deveined, seeded, and quartered (sub different peppers for different heat levels or skip all together)


3 cloves garlic, peeled


1/2 cup fresh cilantro


1/2 cup chard (swiss, rainbow, red, doesn't really matter) devained and cut into strips

2 cups Chicken Stock (or veggie stock)


Salt and freshly ground black pepper


1 cup long-grain white rice
 (I like basmati for this dish)

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1. Place onions, chiles, garlic, cilantro, chard and 1 cup stock in a blender. Blend, strain, and season with salt and pepper. (If you are sans blender, mince all ingredients until they are the size of big glitter)

2. Rinse and drain rice. Heat oil in a  heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add rice and sauté, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add sauce and remaining 1 cup stock. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove pot from heat, but keep covered, allowing rice to cook for another 10 minutes

I just boil pinto beans, blend them with olive oil, salt tomato paste and cumin, rice, no clue sorry, i imagine cooking some long grain in a veggie broth then adding cooked chopped carrots and green onions would work nicely.

a good tip for vegetarian broth (it can get so expensive, so i make my own by boiling potato peels and veggies, separating the water, and freezing it in ice cube trays for later convenient use.

P.,

You don't have to fry beans to get that consistency, they are usually fried in bacon drippings, and I don't think you can get that mexican flavor without bacon, but if you have a subtitute, you could try to mash the beans with a potato masher, and add that bacon sub flavor. Not sure if it would be good or not. I don't really know many Mexican vegitarians...my husbands family all eat meat!

As for the spanish rice, if that is what your are looking for, try white rice, browned in a little oil, add a chopped onion, and cook until they begin to turn translucent. Add garlic and chili powder to taste, a can of crushed tomatoes or plain tomoato sauce or several chopped fresh roma tomatos, vegitable broth (I use chicken) salt to taste, and what ever veggies you like, I add carots, peas, corn, and sometimes green beans. Cover, bring to a boil, and turn down to low and don't touch it for twenty minutes. Depending on how much rice you use, make sure that your liquid is double the rice measurement-you will have to estimate the liquid in the tomatos.

One dish you might like is a mexican vermicelli dish my husbands family makes. I buy the small packeges of mexican vermicelli angel hair pasta from the mexican food isle, or the birds nest vermicelli- the thinner the better. Break the pasta into 1/4 inch peices (it comes this way in the mexican pagkage) brown it in a couple of tablespoons of oil, (think rice a roni) add a chopped onion, cook a little, add a can of crushed tomatos, several cloves of crushed garlic, salt and peper to taste, stir. Add just enough water to barely cover the pasta. Bring to a boil, cover, turn heat down to low until water is absorbed. A rice alternative, good with beans and tortillas and cheese.

M.