So I grew up on Rice and Beans (and tortillas - Mexican parents and hella poor).

I know that everyone on this sub recommends rice and beans all the time, so I thought I’d offer some ways to jazz the flavor for pennies, and make your life easier for cheap and save time too. Maybe common sense for some, but others may not know it.

Rice:

Get a rice cooker! Make your life easy! Walmart sells $5-$10 ones that last for years. They are small, and you don’t even need a kitchen, just an outlet to make rice and other foods in it. You don’t need the fancy Asian ones that can turn into terminators. My little $8 one Lasted me through college and years beyond. The optimal rice to water ratio is for every cup of rice, 1.5 cups of water. Perfect rice in rice cooker every time.

Flavor: Add salt! Add some garlic powder! Add some kind of oil/fat! (Helps with the texture too) Butter for extra tastiness.

Sometimes a dash of bouillon powder adds a Little flavor kick a la spanish rice.

Don’t be afraid to throw cheap frozen or canned veggies (sometimes proteins) in for a quick and super easy way to cram your veggies in. (They will steam cook with no extra effort on your part just add a tiny dash more of water).

Do the above for easy and better than plain rice!

If you want to go a little asian flair, if you can get your hands on some Furikake (flavoring) powder of some kind, or even some cheap seaweed from the Asian supermarket, wrap your plain rice in it for a dash of cheap cheap flavor to help satisfy the hunger.

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Beans!

While I am partial to black beans myself, white beans, kidney beans, even lentils could all benefit from the following.

A la rice cooker, invest in those cheap and small slow cookers that Walmart sells around the holidays for $10, or find one at a thrift shop. Beans are just easier that way. Or a pressure cooker, or whatever works to save you the extra labor.

Flavor:

Take as much (metric fuck ton) onion as you can. Chop it up into bits. Then take a frying pan, or if you decided to just make it in a soup pot, into the soup pot with some oil (or lard if you want a nice kick of flavor). Grill up 3/4 of those those onions and then add the water and beans into your pot, or the grilled onions into the pressure/slow cooker. Add salt, and either fried or powder garlic to taste. If you want a wee kick feel free to add some crushed heat pepper of some kind (use those packets in your drawers people). Let those babies simmer simmer simmer!

(For my friends who do eat pork, don’t be afraid to throw in the cheapest cuts of pork you can find - tails, knuckles, feet, bones etc. the meat will cook beautifully and the beans will soak up the flavor wonderfully - if you don’t eat pork, or can’t afford it... skip this)

(If you have a can of tomato, feel free to add that in for a nice flavor profile change towards a chili - But not necessary)

About 5 min before the beans are done, add the last bit of your onions and let it cook in for the last dash of flavor.

Enjoy. Drink up the broth (especially if made with bones). Serve the broth over your rice. If you’ve got leftover beans, mash them up and fry them.

Spread the beans on toast like hummus and sprinkle with cheese if you have it. Toasted this is the best (mollete)

If you’ve got tortillas refried bean tacos.

Good beans are delicious on any carb at hand. And the proteins keep you full.

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I know there are lots of ways to spice this up further, but honestly onions, garlic and salt, and some kind of fat/oil are enough pantry staples to make even the simplest ingredient taste like a feast to a hungry belly.

If you then have a little Siracha or hoard other flavor packets or fresh tomato or whatever even better. But sometimes you don’t, and you make do with the simple.

I hope this helped at least one person to avoid bland rice and beans.

I grew up eating rice and beans pretty much every single day for years and years and years, and never got sick of them.

Tweak with what you’ve got too

Edit: I kept it pretty simple and generic because sometimes some people can’t/don’t have access to a large pantry of spices. But def creep the comments for more tasty ideas :)