Katie’s Mexican Beans and Rice
1 cup brown rice
1 3/4 cup water
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 can kidney or black beans
2 Tbs. taco seasoning
optional: 1 cup frozen corn
Combine 1st three ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for 45 minutes. Add the other ingredients and simmer 5 more minutes until heated through.
Healthy Upgrade: Soak brown rice in water plus 1 Tbs whey or lemon juice overnight or for 7 hours. Add tomato sauce at cooking time and continue as usual.
NEW UPDATE 7/09: I discovered a great trick to make this taste even more like a restaurant or box mix! Woo hoo! Hubby was happy! Here it is:
Saute the rice first either in a dry pan or in a tad bit of butter (or both, one after the other). THEN add the water, etc. This works whether you’re soaking or not, and totally changes the mouthfeel and taste of the finished dish, definitely for the better. 
**This is the easy-to-print version. See the photos and commentary here.
Do you saute the rice with butter before soaking? Do you throw the soak water and pour in fresh water for cooking?
Tks
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Katie Reply:
August 19th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Yes, saute the rice first, then add water/acidic medium. I just use the soak water for cooking, but you could certainly switch it out as well.
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Hi Katie
Thanks for your reply.
One more thing about soaking – when soaking grains and beans, do we need to cover the container that we soak them in tightly to keep out the air or can we just cover with a sushi mat allowing air to access the soaking items.
Tks
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Katie Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Either should be fine! Always cover grains for dough so it doesn’t dry out, but I don’t think it matters with hard legumes and such.
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Made this the other night for (turkey) taco night. It was FABULOUS! I’ve been playing around for awhile now trying to imitate the box stuff, and although I liked most of my concoctions, the fam didn’t. This is the BEST mexican rice by far. Next time I’ll make the refried beans as well (I had some cans in the pantry to get rid of).
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Hi Katie,
I’ve read that puffed grains may be toxic due to the pressure/high heat changing the chemical structure of the proteins in the grains. Do you know if this would also be true of sauteing rice or any other grains?
Thanks!
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Katie Reply:
September 16th, 2010 at 1:39 am
Angie,
Katie
You’re right on puffed grains, but sauteing won’t add super high heat OR pressure, so it’s not a problem!
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