Smokey pumpkin + black bean rice
This is the perfect easy mid-week dinner. It’s packed with tons of flavour and super adaptable. Want more heat? Serve with pickled jalapenos or your favourite hot sauce. Eat meat? Serve with your favourite protein. Love cheese? Stir through a little grated cheese towards the end, or serve with dollops of sour cream on top. Cooking this in summer? Stir through some cooked, shaved corn and top with a tomato salsa. One base recipe, so many different flavour journeys one could take…Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice rinsed + drained well
- 1/2 small pumpkin peeled and finely diced (approx. 4 cups diced)
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 green chilli finely chopped (de-seed if you’d like less heat)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 x 400g tin black beans rinsed + drained well (or 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans)
- the juice 1/2 lime
- Generous handful coriander leaves + tender stems roughly chopped + extra to serve
- Avocado slices, to serve, optional
Quick pickled red onion
- 1 large red onion finely sliced
- the juice 1/2 lime
- Fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Bring a medium lidded saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add rinsed rice and cook with the lid off for 7 minutes. Drain rice into a sieve, return rice to the pot and pop the lid on. Ideally you want a tight-fitting lid here, if it’s not, you can weigh it down with a few tins. Set aside for 15-20 minutes without disturbing.
- Meanwhile, place diced pumpkin onto an oven tray, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast 15 minutes, or until tender and golden. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Combine red onion and lime juice in a bowl and add a few generous pinches of salt. Stir well and set aside until needed.
- Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add a good few glugs of olive oil. Add onion and cook for a few minutes, whilst stirring until softened. Add garlic, chilli and cumin seeds and cook for a further few minutes before adding smoked paprika and ground coriander, stir for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add drained black beans and stir through to warm. Turn heat to low, add roasted pumpkin and cooked rice and stir until well combined. Add lime juice and coriander and adjust seasoning if needed. Give it all another big stir, then serve topped with pickled onion, avocado slices and extra coriander leaves, if you like.
Notes
This recipe was first created for and featured in On the Land magazine, NZ.
Bowls handmade by me! See more HERE.
