Black Beans with Cilantro-Lime Brown Rice and Pickled Onions

**RECIPE, MAKES 10-12 PORTIONS**

For the beans:

1 lb dried black beans
1 onion
1 bell pepper
2 jalapeño peppers
2-3 tablespoons ground cumin
2-3 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
salt
pepper
olive oil
water
lime wedges for garnish

For the brown rice:

1 lb dried brown rice
5 cups water
1.5 teaspoons salt
juice of two limes
cilantro to taste
olive oil

For the pickled onions:

1 red onion
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar

The night before you want to eat, put the beans in a large bowl and cover them with at least a few inches of water to soak.

Start the pickles by thinly slicing the red onion. Dissolve the sugar into the vinegar in a bowl that isn't made out of aluminum. Toss the onions in the pickling liquid. Cover and refrigerate. Stir them when you wake up in the morning.

The next day, start the beans by chopping up the onion and peppers and cooking them in olive oil in a big pot until they start to soften. Drain the beans and discard the soaking water. Add them to the pot along with enough fresh water to cover by an inch. Put in the oregano, cumin, pepper, garlic powder, vinegar and sugar. Don't put in the salt yet. Simmer the pot for two hours, or until the beans are soft, stirring occasionally. Put in additional water if the beans ever stop being submerged.

As soon as you've got the beans simmering, start the rice by toasting the grains in a little olive oil in a hot pot for a minute or until the rice smells nutty. Add the water and salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for about an hour, or until the water is absorbed. Juice in the limes, add as much chopped cilantro as you want, and stir it in. Leave the rice to rest on a warm setting for an hour or until the beans are ready.

When the beans are soft, add salt to taste, and maybe some more vinegar or sugar. Turn off the heat and let them cool at least 15 minutes to allow the liquid to thicken.

Put some rice on a plate, some beans on the rice, some onions and additional cilantro on the side with a lime wedge.

NOTE: This is a re-upload. In the original version of this video, I mentioned how rice contains the amino acid methionine, which beans lack. I knew that protein combining was not as important as previously thought, but I didn't know how thoroughly the necessity of it had been debunked, so I removed that section of the video. The Wikipedia article on protein combining has a well-cited section on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein...

MY COOKING PHILOSOPHY: I don't like weighing or measuring things if I don't have to, and I don't like to be constantly checking a recipe as I cook. I don't care that volume is a bad way of measuring things — it's usually easier. I like for a recipe to get me in the ballpark, and then I like to eyeball and improvise the rest. If you're like me, my goal with these videos is to give you a sense of how the food should look and feel as you're cooking it, rather than give you a refined formula to reproduce.