"Taco Bowls"

Aka How I Make Beans and Rice Sound Special

Happy Monday! This week I thought I’d share one of my weeknight go-to meals. It’s less of a recipe than a method, but I’ve included lots of cooking tips and fun ideas for you to borrow. It’s not specifically a seasonal summer meal, but I make it all year round, and the base ingredients would work well as sides for grilled meat if you wanted to make them for a cook-out and then use this as a way to enjoy leftovers. I hope you get as much use out of this one as I do!

Sometimes, getting picky eaters (of any age) to eat something is less about what’s on the plate and more about what you call the combination of things you’ve assembled for dinner. This was definitely the case the first time I decided to make my family a meal of beans and rice but trick them into eating it by renaming it a “taco bowl.”

Now, I know that this name is kind of ridiculous—a taco, by definition, is specifically a food wrapped in a tortilla, and traditional tacos would never have rice in them, so this is really more of a burrito-inspired dish. (That said, taco scholars would say that a burrito is a type of taco.) But if you’ve ever fed a picky kid (or a whole table full of them), you’ll understand, and hopefully forgive, the obnoxious renaming impulse.

The thing is, the real key to the “taco bowl” is not just the name. The magic of this meal is that I offer lots and lots of flavorful toppings to go with the base ingredients. Chopped tomatoes (cherry tomatoes in winter) and diced avocado are go-tos. When I’m feeding a bunch of kids, I grate lots and lots of cheddar and open a can of sliced black olives. For a more discerning audience, I get out cotija and salsa macha and brown some scallions in a pan. When I’m making a bowl for myself, I’ll do any of the above, then cut up some kimchi to go on top (this is, after all, California, where we like to mix-and-match our flavor inspirations). Sometimes I even serve tortilla chips instead of putting out utensils for scooping up bites.

The result is flexible enough that you can serve it pretty much every week without getting bored and easy enough to make that you can make a big batch for a party without too much work. Here are my tips and tricks—take what you like, then add your own favorite flavors.

Beans and Rice with All the Toppings—aka Taco Bowls

Base Ingredients:
Beans, cooked or canned (cooking tips below)
Basmati or Spanish rice (cooking tips/shortcut below)

Optional Toppings:
Tomato, finely chopped
Cheddar or Jack cheese, freshly grated, or crumbled cotija
Avocado, diced or sliced
Cilantro, roughly chopped
Scallions, thinly sliced (you can soften/brown them on a grill or in a pan with some oil first, if you like)
Sliced black olives
Salsa fresca, salsa macha, or chile crisp
Leftover grilled meats, vegetables, or anything else you could imagine putting in a taco

Optional Add-Ons:
Tortilla chips, for scooping
Fresh or toasted tortillas, for tearing and scooping
Lime wedges, for squeezing

Make the beans and rice as you like them (I have some suggestions below) and put them out with an assortment of toppings. Let everyone add whatever toppings they like, and eat everything with chips, tortillas, or just a fork.

Cooking Beans

I make this dish with all kinds of beans—basically anything that I have waiting in my pantry from my Rancho Gordo Bean Club order. I always soak the beans overnight with about ½ a teaspoon of baking soda (I just tap some in from the box, rather than measuring) to help soften their skins and remove some of their natural oligosaccharides (a sugar we don’t digest well) which cuts down on their gas-causing properties.

In the morning (or the next evening), I drain the beans, bring them to boil with a lot of water, then simmer them on low with a good pinch of salt, a clove of garlic or two (skin-on is fine), and maybe a bay leaf or a slice of onion or some black peppercorns until they’re soft enough to eat but still hold their shape. (This can take anywhere from 20 mins to 1½ hours, depending on the type of bean, so I often cook them ahead of time and then refrigerate them in their cooking liquid.)

Cooking Rice

There are generally two ways I make rice for this dish: I make basmati on the stovetop with some spices, the way my mom has done it for years, or I use leftover rice to fake a kind of Spanish rice with spices and tomato paste. (I love traditional Spanish rice, simmered with tomato and stock and seasonings, but it takes more time than I have on a normal weeknight.)

To make basmati rice: Finely chop some yellow onion and cook it in a medium pot with a pat of butter until the onion has started to soften, about 3 minutes. Shake some ground cumin and coriander into the pot (I do a few shakes or a couple big pinches of each) and toast the spices, stirring, until they’re fragrant. Add the rice to the pot and let it toast, too, stirring, for 1–2 minutes. Add twice as much water (by volume) as your rice (1 cup rice = 2 cups water) and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer the rice for 20 mins.

To make Spanish-ish rice from leftover white or brown rice: Heat some vegetable oil in a pot or pan, then add 1–2 tablespoons (or more, if you like) of tomato paste and let it fry, stirring it a bit, until it has released its oils. (If you happen to have Turkish pepper paste in the fridge, like I do, you can use one spoonful of tomato paste and one spoonful of pepper paste.) Add leftover rice to the pan (basmati or other long-grain rice is best, but other types also work) and mix it well with the tomato paste. Season the rice with a little ground cumin and coriander, a good pinch of salt, and a generous shake of garlic powder (and maybe some onion powder, too), and stir everything together. Taste and add more seasonings as you like; the amount will depend on how much rice you used and how much flavor you want your rice to have.

From the Archives

Early summer is the perfect season to make my Cucumber and Stone Fruit Salad. This one has stayed in my “Most Popular” list ever since I shared it last summer, and I’m thrilled to see that so many of you enjoyed it.

Photos: Georgia Freedman