Indian-Style Rice and Beans II

John and I seem to be in a grocery funk. Normally we plan about 3 things to make for dinner per week and we buy groceries for those things, maybe a few other odds and ends, and that's that. But the summer has sort of thrown all that off. We still plan our meals, but sometimes we run out sooner than expected, or make pasta salad for the beach, or spontaneously decide we want hot dogs (it was the 4th of July). We were sort of out of meals a couple of days ago, and decided to use a spare can of red beans to make another version of Indian-style Rice and Beans, which we made a few days before.




















We made just a couple of changes based on things we did or didn't have on hand. First, red beans instead of chickpeas. Also, we added fresh pineapple, since mango went so well with the first version. We ended up adding the pineapple to the bean mixture while it was still cooking, and they went really well together. I also chopped up a green onion and added it on top, since I had one that needed to be used up.
























What we ended up with was a more colorful, more beany version of the previous recipe, and it's delicious! I highly recommend the pineapple-red bean version.


Indian-style Rice and Beans, II
adapted from No Meat Athlete

• 1 cup dry brown rice
• 1 can drained and rinsed red kidney beans
  
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
• a thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, minced*
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 and 1/2 cups chopped pineapple
• 1 green onion, chopped (optional)
  

Cook the brown rice according to package directions. Heat up the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for an additional 5 minutes. Add the red beans and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Stir the curry powder and cinnamon into the bean and onion mixture. Fry for a minute, than add the ginger and tomatoes and their juices. Cook on medium-high heat for 5 minutes, until the tomatoes no longer taste raw. Add pineapple, cook 1-2 more minutes (until heated through). Stir the cilantro into the rice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Top with green onion.

*Our ginger was looking kind of scrawny, so we used 1.5 tsp ground ginger. It was nowhere near as flavorful as the real thing, so I'd recommend NOT using ground ginger.