Cookbook:Rice an' Peas

Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes | Vegan Cuisine | Caribbean cuisines | Rice

Rice an' peas is a traditional Caribbean dish, done easy in a rice cooker, great for your ital-eating Rastafarian or vegan friends. There's lots of ways to cook rice an' peas, but this one is easy and hassle free.

Ingredients

For 1 serving:

• 1 cup beans (kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans) (also known as "peas"), dried or canned
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup water

Procedure

1. If using dried beans, cover them in water and soak for at least 8 hours.
2. Drain and rinse the beans (even canned beans) prior to use.
3. If using dried red kidney beans, boil briskly for 20 minutes, then drain again.
4. Add rice, beans, water, and coconut milk to a rice cooker. If using a programmable cooker, set to cook for brown rice. For an on/off cooker, turn it on.
5. In about 30 minutes your rice cooker will "pop". Open, stir, and serve.

Warnings

• It is important to soak and pre-cook dried kidney beans. Dried kidney beans will cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea unless they have been boiled briskly for at least twenty minutes to destroy the very indigestible phytohaemagglutinin that they contain—a slow cooker is not enough and can even make things worse. They will then need another 60–90 minutes at a slow simmer to become tender. Tinned kidney beans are quite safe and do not need pre-cooking as their preparation involves sufficient heat to destroy the toxin.