Everyone needs a cheap and easy one-pan dinner to get you through the hard times; This is mine.
Dear Robby,
Our high-brow vision for this blog might need some rethinking now that we live 5,000 miles apart. How about we pivot to VlogBrothers style open letters?
I know there’s a lot of cuisine to explore in London, but for my first update I’m keeping it down to earth. London often feels like a tourist city, because Americans can roll in with their high wages and enjoy the finer things while the rest of us pay a crippling council tax for those cute public gardens. This post pays honour to the humble home cooked meals that pack a punch despite the low price point.
Everyone has their own version of this powerful penny-pinchers meal. (If they don’t they should take notes!) I don’t mean glorified instant ramen here, though don’t get me wrong I could (and probably will) write a whole post about that. I’m talking about something nutritious enough to eat five nights a week. I’m talking about a true survival meal — one that will get you through the hard times feeling like a champ.
This meal takes me back to my roots. By the time I moved out of my parents’ house, they referred to their selection of recurring home cooked meals as the “rotation,” as in, “This meal was nice, but will it make it into the rotation?”
This rolodex of repetitive, albeit unique dinner plates is probably all my little brother knows. I, however, remember circa 2008, right around the time he was born. Back then, we had only minor variations of the same core meal. Beans and rice.
Fast forward to recent times. In my industry, the winter of ‘22-’23 was referred to (by those who had been in the game long enough to say) as “the worst winter since 2008.” We’re talking post-Covid, so that’s really saying something. It seems proper then, that I’m now in my 2008-era when it comes to dinners. I have nothing but respect for my folks’ former frugalness, because in this economy, you really can’t beat a dinner that serves two people, with leftovers for the lunch the next day, for less than 5 pounds.
SIMPLE ONE-PAN BEANS AND RICE (serves four, keeps well in the fridge)
Ingredients (*to taste):
Rice (Honestly, I just eyeball it… about a tennis ball sized amount, dry, usually does the trick)
1 Can of black beans
1 Can of sweet corn
1 Bell pepper
1/2 Large yellow onion
2 Cloves of crushed garlic
Oil (I use Olive or Rapeseed)
*Paprika
*Hot Chile Powder
*Oregano
*Parsley
*Salt
*Black Pepper
Tortillas
*Shredded Cheddar
*Jalapeños
*Sliced Green Olives
*Sour Cream
*Your favourite hot sauce
Cooking Instructions:
Step One: Boil water in the kettle, then transfer it to a small pot. (This is Britain. We never boil cold water on the stove.) While the water is coming back to a boil, add oil to a large pan set over medium heat. Add salt to the water, then add the rinsed Basmati rice. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Step Two: While the rice cooks, dice the half onion and add to the pan. Cook the onion for about 5 minutes, adding white wine if needed to deglaze. Or just for taste. You do you. Reduce the heat a bit and add a whole can of black beans (rinsed), crushed garlic, and then spice the mixture to taste. This on its own is a tasty snack. If you’re really hungry, feel free to indulge a little. I certainly have. (Side note, this also makes a nice vegetarian taco filling.)
Step Three: Chop the bell pepper and add it to the pan. It doesn’t need to cook long (or at all) so don’t worry if you’re running out of time. Once the timer rings, take the lid off the rice and let it simmer off the remaining water. Add a can of corn and a splash of water to the pan of beans, and when all the remaining water has simmered off the rice, mix it in with the beans. Once again, season to taste.
Step Four: Melt freshly grated cheddar (preferably aged English cheddar, obviously) onto your tortillas. Scoop the rice and beans into your tortilla and garnish with sliced green olives, jalapeños, sour cream and hot sauce (for me, it has to be Cholula.) Wrap up your burrito and enjoy!
You can riff off this recipe to create plenty of variation. For example, swapping rice for roasted potatoes, swapping out different veggie options, playing with the spice choices, adding protein or serving with avocado.
The core ingredients are relatively affordable at my local Tesco, but you can surely get them much cheaper if you shop around, or buy in bulk. For reference, I spent 50p each on the can of corn and the can of beans and 60p for the bell pepper. The rest of the ingredients I already had at home, but I would estimate the whole lot comes in just under £1 per serving.
