Mexican Rice and Beans with Pork Belly and Vegetables
Rice and beans with pork belly, vegetables and herbs is a tasty, slightly spicy dish popular in Latin and Central America and Mexico. There are many recipes and variations, depending on the ingredients typical of each place. The dish can be made like a stew or chili con carne, or as a kind of pilaf, or even as a warm salad you can use as a taco filling.
It often goes by the name rice and beans, or beans and rice. All sorts of meat and vegetables go into it. As a rule, it's made with white or brown rice, red or black beans, and the seasonings and spices typical of the region. In the southern USA, smoked or homemade sausageis added, or even small pork chops.
Usually the beans and rice are cooked separately and mixed with the vegetables and meat shortly before the end. The soaked beans are boiled almost until tender in plenty of salted water. The rice should be fluffy so the rice and beans don't turn into porridge. Quite often all the ingredients are served separately on a big platter, like a salad of beans and chicken, and mixed just before eating, or not mixed at all.
Rice and beans is a simple dish and, given how nutritious most of the ingredients are, very filling. The amazing combination of grains, vegetables and meat complementing each other makes it very tasty and very healthy. Rice and beans has everything the body needs. All the ingredients are easy to find and inexpensive, even in hard times.
Rice, beans, other grains, meat and herbs are the foundation of Mexican cuisine. Dishes tend to have fairly complex and unexpected combinations, meat with corn being one example. Culinary traditions from pre-Columbian times, blended with those of the New World, have become the hallmark of Mexican cooking and are faithfully kept.
All over the world you can find Mexican tortillas and dishes based on them, tasty spicy seafood pilaf, burritos and so on. Rice and beans are the most popular Mexican sides, both separately and together, with various vegetables or even meat. Rice and beans cooked with meat can be a full main course, served wrapped in a corn tortilla. Or it can be a superb, hearty side for a big piece of charcoal-grilled meat with guacamole and pico de gallo.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Black or red beans 100 g
- Rice 100 g
- Pork belly 200 g
- Onions 2
- Red bell pepper 1
- Chili pepper 2
- Carrot 1
- Garlic 2-3 cloves
- Butter 2 tbsp
- Cilantro, parsley 4-5 sprigs
- Salt, ground chili, coriander to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- We'll make the rice and beans from pre-cooked beans and rice. Ideally use black beans, as for chicken with beans, or red beans. But speckled or white beans will do too, although for looks they aren't the best choice. The rice should be fluffy. Parboiled rice works well, as does devzira, the Central Asian rice used for plov, or brown rice.
- Sort through the beans, discarding any damaged ones, and soak them overnight in cold water. Soaked beans usually cook in 20-30 mins. You can also use canned beans, especially if you're short on time. Cook the beans until tender, drain, then transfer them to a bowl and cover so they don't dry out.
- Rinse the rice under running water until all the rice flour left from polishing is washed away. If the rice is brown, be ready for it to take much longer to cook. Cook the rice until tender. If you know the rice well, you can cook it in a measured amount of water (for example, 1:2). But to be safe, it's much easier to boil the rice in plenty of water until tender and then drain it in a colander.
- Melt the butter in a sauté pan or a frying pan with a lid and fry the diced pork belly. Choose a not-too-fatty part so there's more meat. Fry the pork until it just starts to brown.
- Peel the carrot and dice it. Add the carrot to the meat and fry for 3-4 mins.
- Seed the bell and chili peppers and cut them into small pieces. Peel the onions and dice them or cut into thick strips. Add the onions and peppers to the fried meat. Keep frying over medium heat with the pan uncovered.
- When the vegetables are soft, season with salt to taste and add 1-2 pinches of ground coriander and ground chili to taste. By the way, you can toast coriander seeds in a dry pan for 2-3 mins, then grind them in a mortar. That makes the coriander far more fragrant and gives the rice and beans a refined flavor.
- Add the cooked rice and beans to the meat and vegetables. Stir everything and cover the pan. Turn the heat down to the minimum. The rice with beans, vegetables and meat should steam for 15-20 mins. Stir it 2-3 times during that time, piling the rice, beans and vegetables into a mound.
- While the rice and beans finish cooking, strip the herb leaves from the sprigs and chop them finely with a knife. Discard the stems: they're tough and no good for the dish.
- When the rice and beans are fully done, put them on plates or on one big platter, as you prefer. Sprinkle with the finely chopped herbs.
- Rice and beans can be a dish on its own or an excellent side for breaded pork chops or grilled pork loin.
| Serves: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 180 |
| Prep: | 30 mins |
| Cook: | 1 h |
| Total: | 1 h 30 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | Mexican cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.4
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