Red Beans and Rice
This simple red beans and rice recipe serves as an excellent side dish or a satisfying main course, offering a delicious option for those times when you prefer a fuss-free dinner. With just six straightforward ingredients, a trusty rice cooker, and a mere 20 minutes, you can create a wholesome and satisfying meal.
One of the most basic meals is rice and beans. There are countless ways you can combine the two simply with the addition of spices, herbs, and veggies to enhance the flavors of the dish.
My version is for a simple take on Red Beans and Rice, using my Hamilton Beach Rice Cooker. (Did you see the article How to Steam Broccoli in a Rice Cooker I wrote about using my new appliance?)
This recipe is so ridiculously easy. The hardest part is opening the cans of kidney beans and Ro*Tel.
Ingredients
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 16 ounces kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 10 ounces Ro*Tel (diced tomatoes and green chiles)
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 3-4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 ½ cups water
Instructions
To make Red Beans and Rice, put rice, kidney beans, Ro*Tel (I like it HOT! – The can with habaneros, that is.), a little tomato paste, garlic, and water. Then plug in the rice cooker, press WHITE RICE, and let it work for you. When it finishes, stir the rice and bean mixture.
This recipe would be great for Meatless Monday or any time you don’t want to fuss over dinner. Put all the ingredients in the rice cooker, grab your favorite drink, and kick up your heels.
Red Beans and Rice Nutritional Information
Below are screenshots of the nutrition application in action. In the first picture, you can see the quantity for each ingredient that it is used to calculate the information.
In this next picture, you can see how many calories are calculated for each ingredient and the overall nutritional value of the meal. The recipe makes a total of 4 servings. I cannot tell you how much that comes out to volume-wise. I imagine that it could vary slightly, depending on how much the rice swells or cooks.
What I would recommend would be to visually divide the recipe into fourths. If you have a food scale, you can get an accurate measurement by weighing the cooked red beans and rice and then dividing the total weight by 4 to get an accurate calorie/nutrition count.
Other Recipes You Might Enjoy
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- Quick and Easy Taco Soup – This meatless update to an old trusty Weight Watchers recipe will have you licking your bowl.
- Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce – Transform an ordinary packet of ramen into something extraordinary with a few tasty ingredients.
Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 16 ounces kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 10 ounces Ro*Tel
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 3-4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 ½ cups water
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in the rice cooker and press WHITE RICE.
- When finished, stir and enjoy.
This was awful. Rice didn’t cook all the way. Just tasted like tomatoes. Throwing it out.
I am sorry the recipe did not work for you. By any chance, have you had issues with other recipes in your rice cooker?
It was pretty good. I guess I was expecting it to taste like Popeye’s red beans & rice. I used Basmati rice and only used 2 cups of water, which I’m glad I did (wasn’t too watery).
I would love to have Popeye’s recipe. 😉
It’s a bad plan to just identify an item just by its brand name and not tell what the item is.
Ro*Tel is synonymous with tomatoes and green chiles. Are you in Portland/Hillsboro? Most people in the United States are familiar with the product.
recipe looks good, planning to make it tonight, but I’m in Canada and I *also* had to look up Ro*Tel to see what it was specifically.
I am sorry to have assumed that most people would know what Ro*Tel is. It’s very well known in the Southern US and I didn’t realize that it might not be in other parts of the country (or Canada!).
Usually make red beans and rice with andoulle sausage, but too much fat. Thank you for this recipe it is delicious.
I am so happy that you enjoyed it.
Should the beans be drained & rinsed? Should the rotel be drained?
Good question. Rinse and drain the beans. Do not drain the Ro*Tel.
Can you use a slow cooker instead of a rice cooker? Also do you use can beans or fresh
I haven’t tried it in a slow cooker. Use canned beans which have already been cooked.
Says 1 serving is 145 calories. How much is 1 serving? 1cup? 100 grams? Can you please let me know because in so many recipes I see, I cannot seem to see that.
Thanks, Chris, for leaving your comment.
I cannot say exactly how much each serving is, because I did not assess the total cooked volume. All I know is that there are 4 servings in the entire batch.
Thanks to your comment, I re-ran the program to add screenshots to the post so that readers can see the breakdown. In the process, I discovered that initially the nutrition application incorrectly used values for 1 kidney bean, not an entire can. The nutrition information has been updated and the screenshots are near the bottom of the post.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Take care!
How long would you cook this if you don’t have a rice cooker?
I found a recipe at Ready Set Eat that might work for you if you don’t have a rice cooker. You can check it out HERE.
@Lynda, thanks but the calories are double that of your recipe. I’ll just play it by ear and see what happens.
Thanks,
Colleen