This Rice and Beans recipe is simple, affordable, and deeply nourishing-but with a twist. I use a 7-grain rice blend with four types of beans cooked together, then portion and freeze it to boost resistant starch and support better blood sugar balance. Make once and eat all week.
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🔍 Quick Look: Rice and Beans
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 5 minutes
- 🎛️ Cook Time: 60 minutes
- 👥 Servings: 9
- 📊 Calories: ~308 kcal per serving (based on nutrition panel)
- 👩🏽🍳 Flavor Profile: hearty, earthy, mildly savory, and comforting
- 💪🏼 Nutrition: 14 grams of protein, 9 grams of fiber
- ⭐ Difficulty: easy, mostly hands-off, minimal prep, (just soaking, simmering, and combining)
Jump to:
- 🔍 Quick Look: Rice and Beans
- 👩🏽⚕️ Nutritionist's Note
- 👩🏼🌾 Ingredients
- 🌱 Substitutions
- 📝 How to Make Rice and Beans
- 🫘 What I used to make rice and beans:
- ✔️ Storage, Meal Prep & Reheating Tips
- 🍚 More Rice and Beans Recipes
- 🙋🏽♀️ Recipe FAQs
- 🍽️ More Grain & Bean Recipes:
- 👩🏽🍳 Made this recipe?
- ⚖️ Convert the Recipe to Metric (g & mL)
- Rice and Beans (Meal Prep Friendly)
- 🛍️ Shop Recipe Cookware and Ingredients
- 💬 Comments
👩🏽⚕️ Nutritionist's Note
Rice and beans are a staple across cultures because they're affordable, filling, and nutritionally balanced. What I love here is the upgrade: using multiple beans adds broader nutrient diversity, cooling and reheating increases resistant starch (which may help blunt glucose spikes), and portioning into ½-cup servings makes it easy to build balanced, satisfying meals.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is not your typical rice and beans recipe-and here's why:
- Higher in protein and fiber from four types of beans
- Budget-friendly and built on pantry staples
- Perfect for meal prep (freezer-friendly portions)
- Supports blood sugar balance with resistant starch
- Flexible: works with any grain or rice
- One-pot beans for maximum simplicity
👩🏼🌾 Ingredients
Below, I share ingredient notes from both a nutrition expert's and trained chef's perspective.
- Pinto beans: Creamy and soft, these help bring the mixture together.
- Chickpeas: Firmer than the other beans, they add more bite and hold their shape well.
- Navy beans: Mild, tender, and great for balancing the texture.
- Black-eyed peas: Soft and earthy, they cook well with the other beans and add even more variety.
- Seven Grains Rice Mix: Using a rice and grain mix adds more texture, fiber, and interest than plain rice. That said, regular rice works too.
See the printable recipe card below for quantities.
🌱 Substitutions
This recipe is versatile and easy to adapt. Below are some simple ingredient substitutions.
- Grain: Use white rice, brown rice, red rice, black rice, quinoa, farro, or barley instead of the 7-grain mix
- Beans: Swap any of the four beans with black beans or great northern beans (keep similar cook times)
- Canned beans: Use canned for convenience-drain and rinse well, then skip soaking and cooking
- Higher protein: Add cooked lentils or edamame
- Flavor boost: Add garlic, bay leaf, onion, or cumin while cooking beans
- Broth instead of water: Adds more depth if desired
- Spice variations: Add chili powder, smoked paprika, smashed garlic, bay leaf, or peppercorns
- Add-ins: Mix in sautéed kale or greens, chopped roasted veggies, nut-free pesto, or falafel sauce when serving
📝 How to Make Rice and Beans
The complete recipe with exact amounts is below. These additional tips will help you get the best results.
- Use fresh dried beans. Older beans can take much longer to cook and may never fully soften. If your beans have been sitting in the pantry for a while, it's best to replace them. Soak beans for about 6 hours to improve digestion and reduce cook time.
- Rinse beans well after soaking to remove debris and excess starch.
- Always cook beans in fresh water (not soaking water). Keep beans fully submerged while cooking for even tenderness. Avoid overcooking or beans will become mushy.
- Simmer gently-avoid rapid boiling to prevent splitting skins. Add salt at the end to keep beans from toughening early. Check doneness across bean types.
- Drain the beans as soon as they're tender. This stops the cooking process immediately and prevents them from becoming too soft or mushy.
- Cook grains separately for best texture (beans take longer).
- Let grains sit covered 5 minutes after cooking, then fluff.
- Fluff the grain properly. Gently fluff with a fork. This separates the grains, releases excess steam, and prevents clumping.
- Mix the rice and beans, then transfer to a baking sheet or large plate and spread into a thin, even layer so the steam can escape. Let cool to room temperature, then portion and refrigerate or freeze. Avoid leaving it in a hot pot-it traps heat and slows cooling.
- Portion into ½ cups for easy, consistent serving sizes.
- Remove frozen portions and reheat as needed.
- Reheat in the microwave (cover and heat 1-2 minutes, stirring halfway), in a saucepan (add a splash of water, cover, and warm over low heat), or in the oven (cover and heat at 300°F until warmed through).
Serve as a complete meal: Pair with a protein, add veggies, and finish with a sauce or dressing for balance and flavor.
🫘 What I used to make rice and beans:
✔️ Storage, Meal Prep & Reheating Tips
These simple steps help preserve freshness and flavor:
- Cool before storing: Let the rice and beans cool completely before transferring to containers. This improves texture and supports resistant starch formation.
- Portion for ease: Divide into ½-cup or 1-cup portions so you can grab exactly what you need.
- Refrigerate: Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.
- Freeze for longer storage: Freeze portions for up to 3 months. Smaller portions thaw faster and more evenly. Label and date: Especially helpful if you batch cook regularly.
- Reheat from fridge: Microwave covered for 1-2 minutes, stirring halfway, or warm in a saucepan over low heat with a splash of water.
- Reheat from frozen: Microwave covered for 2-3 minutes, stirring halfway, or thaw overnight in the fridge first for best texture. Stovetop method: Add a splash of water, cover, and heat gently, stirring occasionally until warmed through. Oven option: Cover and heat at 300°F until hot (best for larger portions). Avoid overheating: This helps prevent the grains from drying out and the beans from becoming mushy.
- Build meals easily: Pair reheated portions with veggies, a protein, and a sauce or dressing for a quick, balanced meal.
🍚 More Rice and Beans Recipes
This easy Vegan Red Beans and Rice recipe is a healthy version of the traditional Louisiana dish.
Try my Cowboy Rice Salad with black beans, corn, and avocado, tossed in a tangy 4-ingredient dressing.
This 20-minute vegan Baja Bowl recipe is healthy, easy, and packed with flavor.
My vegan high-protein Refried Bean Bowl is packed with plant-based protein. A one-pot, easy, no-chop recipe, with homemade vegan ranch dressing.
🙋🏽♀️ Recipe FAQs
Layer simple flavors. Cook the beans with aromatics like garlic, onion, or bay leaf, salt at the end, and finish with something bright like lemon juice or vinegar. Even a simple sauce or dressing at the end makes a big difference.
Use beans with similar cook times if cooking together. Pinto beans, chickpeas, navy beans, and black-eyed peas work well here. You can also swap in black beans, kidney beans, or great northern beans depending on what you have.
Focus on texture and timing. Soak, cook until tender (not mushy), and let them cool before eating or freezing to increase resistant starch. Pair with whole grains, fiber-rich veggies, and healthy fats to help support more stable blood sugar levels.
Add vegetables (like sautéed greens, peppers, or roasted veggies), a protein if you want more staying power, and a sauce or dressing for flavor. Think tahini, salsa, chimichurri, or a simple lemon-garlic dressing.
🍽️ More Grain & Bean Recipes:
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⚖️ Convert the Recipe to Metric (g & mL)
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Rice and Beans (Meal Prep Friendly)
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried pinto beans
- ½ cup dried chickpeas
- ½ cup dried black eyed peas
- ½ cup dried navy beans
- 2 cups rice or seven grain rice mix (see notes)
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EQUIPMENT
- 2 medium saucepans
- 3 silicone freezer trays ½ cup portions (optional)
Instructions
- Soak the beans: Add all beans to a large bowl. Cover with plenty of water and soak for about 6 hours.
- Cook the beans: Drain and rinse the beans. Transfer to a large pot and cover with fresh water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until tender, about 60 minutes, or until all the tyoes of beans are cooked. Optional: Add salt toward the end.
- Cook the grain: Cook the 7-grain mix (or rice of choice) according to package instructions. Once done, let sit covered for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.
- Combine: Drain the beans if needed and mix with the cooked grain. Adjust salt to taste.
- Optional cool and store: Spread the mixture in a thin layer to cool. Once cooled, portion into containers and refrigerate or freeze for later use.
Notes
- If beans are not soaked, cooking time will be longer and may be less even.
- Serving size is 1 cup cooked rice and beans. I portioned into ½-cup servings for faster freezing and thawing.
- Nutrition facts are based on a 1-cup serving.
- Find the beans, 7-grain mix, and silicone portion trays used in this recipe linked here.
Nutrition
This information is provided as a courtesy and is only an estimate. Nutritional values may vary depending on factors such as product types and brands used.
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