Berbere Black Rice w/ Tomatoes and Cashews Recipe

This can be made with 1 cup of cashews if you don’t have 2 cups on hand. Ian needs more daily protein than Q and I, so I pack more into the recipe and then give him nuttier scoops. :-)
If you don’t have crushed tomatoes, whole also work fine: just break them up a bit with a spoon.
If you don’t have berbere, try using a combo of paprika, cumin, and ginger (or tumeric) if you have them.

Looking for a hearty, tasty, plant-based whole-food dish that’ll fill you up and maybe also spice up whatever is in your usual rotation? This was thrown together with items we had on hand, it tastes like an Ethiopian variant of jambalaya, and it is now a family fave.

This house always has a bulk bin full of black rice, because it is delicious, bursting with fiber, a plant-based protein, and has abundant anthocyanins. What are anthocyanins, again? They are powerful flavonoids that “possess antioxidative and antimicrobial activities, improve visual and neurological health, and protect against various non-communicable diseases.” Anthocyanins not only improve your vision and the health of your nervous system, they prevent oxidative stress (animal products perpetuate this) because they are handy antioxidants that prevent against heart disease and cancer. You won’t get this from your plain, white rice because it has been stripped of its hull, unlike these dark purple wonder grains. (We’ve been working through the same 11lb bag of black rice since January 6th, and we cook it a couple times a week.)

As seen in the recipe for Ethiopian Style Lentils we also always have berbere in the cabinet, because it is one of our favorite spices.

We’re all in a remain-in-place state at present, this household has no desire to be at grocery stores more than is absolutely necessary (Ian’s done one run and it was late at night to avoid crowds, otherwise we’re living off dried goods and kale/avocado/citrus drop-offs from Ian’s father), and budgets are TIGHT over here (I was laid off a month ago —when Onondaga County’s schools closed— and we relied on that income to make ends meet) so we’ve been working dishes through the sieve of “What items do we have around? How can we stretch them out, but still make them flavorful/healthful?”

Thank goodness for Stone’s Throw Farm and the last bulbs of our CSA alliums (onions, garlic), Aldi’s cashews, and canned (or jarred if you have some!) tomato.

By combining all-of-the-above with the previously mentioned berbere and black rice: you get a scrumptious, hearty, satisfying rice dish that is full of flavor, fiber, plant-based protein, and antioxidants (<— important for robust immune systems) …and it’s not just the anthocyanin health-harking in glory, those tomatoes are packed with lycopene: another antioxidant fighting against heart disease, cancer, and stroke risk.

Most importantly: this dish feeds you (and yours) without harming the earth or your own body like you would by consuming a fiberless, protein-dense animal product meal.

Wait? I get that I need to be eating more fiber (which I can only get from plants), and that you’re always going to bring your recipes back to environmental issues, but why is too much protein a bad thing?!

First, that “protein-dense” hyperlink above is leading to a great article relaying that eating more that your recommended amount of protein can lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, calcium-leached bones, liver disease, kidney disease, and cancer; but here’s a research study stating that same:

”Extra protein is not used efficiently by the body and may impose a metabolic burden on the bones, kidneys, and liver. Moreover, high-protein/high-meat diets may also be associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease due to intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol or even cancer.”

Yeah, but that’s just one study! There are many to be found, Dear Soul. Here’s the American Heart Association saying the same in relation to why lowering your consumption of animal protein will lower your risk of various diet-caused diseases:

Whether you’re considering eating less meat or giving it up entirely, the benefits are clear: less risk of disease and improved health and well-being. Specifically, less meat decreases the risk of:

• Heart disease

• Stroke

• Obesity

• High blood pressure

• High cholesterol

• Type 2 diabetes

• Many cancers

Here’s a video by Dr. Michael Greger showing those excess proteins and fats (from our Standard American meat/cheese/more meat/ice cream/saturated-fat snack diets) are clogging up the arteries of our children (found in*** 100%*** of children by age 10, and is seen in children as young as SEVEN MONTHS!!!)

Learning this (and confirming it through other studies) was such an informational slap-up-the-head (and dagger to the heart) that I can’t get it out of my mind. I’ve covered it before, and I’ll keep covering it. I will be hollering about the fatty streaks in the hearts of children until we all absorb the absurdity of what we’re doing to ourselves, our children, our planet, other species: merely for the sake of taste.

So with a mind-rattled to wakefulness to the environmental and health imperatives of switching to plant-based, whole-foods; and a soul over here (*waves*) who wouldn’t eat something herself (or recommend it) unless it was delicious, healthy, affordable, and environmentally kind (all in that order): here is the step-by-step recipe that will fill you up and help heal the earth.

Ingredients to start: one onion, water, roasted (unsalted) cashews (we get ours from Aldi’s now that we can’t get them from a bulk bin, those containers can be reused indefinitely to store other dried goods), black rice, crushed tomato, berbere, bay leaf, garlic, and salt.

This is another recipe that caramelizes onions without oil.

(Here is the same info copied from the Ethiopian lentil recipe.)

Why no oils?
Because all the nutritionally-focused, whole-food docs are harking that we need to limit our processed oil intake and this dish really doesn’t need it.
Why are oils considered processed? Because “They contain no fiber [like you get if you instead ate nuts, seeds, avocados, etc], no minerals and are 100% fat calories. Both the mono unsaturated and saturated fat contained in oils is harmful to the endothelium, the innermost lining of the artery, and that injury is the gateway to vascular disease.” .
Which docs are advising against oil? Dr Caldwell Esselstyn (gold medalist turned cardiologist/heart surgeon, who was the first to prove that you can reverse and prevent heart disease through no medications, just plant-based whole-foods), Dr Dean Ornish (another doc who proved the same reversal and prevention, and is now showing all sorts of other diseases one can avoid following a plant-based whole-food diet), Dr Neal Barnard (who showed all of the above and that plant-based whole-foods can reverse Diabetes or completely prevent you from getting it), the list goes on and on.

After 10 minutes of simmering with the lid on, your water will be gone and your onions lightly browned.

Add in another 1/2 cup of water.

Stir to make sure they are flat to the pot and put the lid back on for another 10 minutes or so. Keep an eye on it because sometimes they brown/evaporated quicker.

After the second batch of water has evaporated, it should look like this.
Turn off the heat, grate one of the garlic cloves into the pot, throw the cashews in, stir to combine.
Turn heat back on and cook on medium-high for a minute or until the cashews are just lightly browned.

Next: add the black rice, the tomatoes, and the other three cloves of grated garlic.

Add the 3 cups of water and then 1 bay leaf.

Stir.

Put lid back on.

Bring to boil.

Stir.

Turn down to medium-low and let simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

It’s done when all of the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender. (Be forewarned: black rice will always have a bit of chewiness to it, though.)

This rice could be paired with a lot of fun fiber-filled vegetable sides but here’s one example of how we’ve eaten it: with kale & quinoa salad, quick-pickled cabbage, and fresh bell peppers.

Live and feast kindly, Folks! <3