This is easily my older daughter’s new favorite meal, and I even have the text screenshot to prove it, LOL. She was on a 3-day 8th-grade field trip to the Outer Banks and trying to power through all sorts of mass-produced and questionable fast food when she sent me this text message. I love that our homemade meals had her missing us at least a tiny bit! She was having so much fun that I’m sure she didn’t think much about us otherwise.
She’s funny! I have to say though, this does come together as a very hearty vegetarian dish, and the sweetness of the roasted plantains are quite a tasty finishing touch. I don’t think to make plantains very often, but I have a feeling I’ll be doing it more in the future with her requests for this recipe!
What’s funny is, when I first started exploring the idea of yellow rice for this dish my mind went straight to those little flavored packets of it you find at the store. I am almost a decade into cutting out processed food and still finding things I’ve never made from scratch before! All it takes (I’ve learned) is a little turmeric and other seasonings, and you’ve got yourself some tasty, whole-grain homemade yellow rice. Also, I’m always looking for ways to switch up brown rice—it’s a tad boring all on its own, don’t you think?! :)
I know at first glance this recipe looks like a lot of ingredients and prep, but I promise once you get into it, it’s reasonably straightforward. Nothing complicated going on here at all!
As I mentioned, my daughter keeps asking me to make this recipe, AND whenever we have leftovers she’s begging for them in her lunch box (pictured)! Also, this one does hold up leftover well, especially if you’re on-the-go—a good enough reason to double the recipe next time I make it! Hope you enjoy this one as much as we do.
Cuban Black Bean and Yellow Rice Bowls (with Roasted Plantains!)
Inspired by Southern Living Magazine
Ingredients
For the whole-grain yellow rice
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 small shallot, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice, jasmine or basmati
- 3 cups chicken, or veggie broth
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the black beans
For assembly
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded, cored, and thinly sliced or diced
- 1 avocado, sliced or diced. Can use 2 avocados if you're a big fan!
- 2 handfuls fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
For the whole-grain yellow rice
-
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook the shallot and garlic, while stirring, until they begin to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the rice, broth, turmeric, and salt, and bring to a boil.
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Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until rice is tender, between 20 and 40 min (depending on the rice). Add more liquid if necessary to ensure it's cooked all the way and creamy.
For the plantains
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Peel and slice plantains into 1/2" pieces and place in one even layer on the baking sheet. Spray or brush with a light coating of olive oil and season with salt.
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Bake until golden brown on the bottom, 16 to 18 minutes.
For the black beans
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Add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion and jalapeno until they begin to soften, 2 to 3 minutes.
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Add in the black beans, water, lime juice, cumin, and salt, and cook while stirring until the liquid evaporates almost all the way. Turn off the heat. Add more water if necessary to keep the beans from drying out while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
For assembly
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Divide the yellow rice among four bowls. Top it off with sections of plantains, black beans, bell pepper, avocado, and cilantro. Serve or add to the lunch box for the next day and eat cold or at room temp.
Recipe Notes
We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
To make this dish vegetarian use vegetable broth rather than chicken broth.
Nutrition Facts
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This looks great! Did you use green plantains or ripe?
Lisa used yellow plantains. – Nicole
Sounds delicious! Do you ever use the instapot? I was wondering if you knew any modifications to make it in the instapot, particularly the rice? Thank you!
Hi Brooke. Lisa actually isn’t a fan of the Instant Pots. You can read more about her reasons why here: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/why-i-dont-like-instant-pot-curried-lentil-sweet-potato-stew/
She’s linked to a couple of different bloggers who DO like it, so I would check those out. :) – Nicole
I cooked my rice in the instant pot using all of the same amounts. 15 minutes high pressure. It was perfect!
What sort of plantain do you use for this? Green, right? Just checking!
Lisa used yellow plantains for this recipe. – Nicole
Do you need the green plantain or the yellow/brownish ones for sweetness?
Lisa used the yellow plantains. – Nicole
This meal was super yummy! We even had some random neighborhood kids stop by and join us for dinner—they all enjoyed it too!
I made the rice in my IP (15 minutes high pressure) and it was perfect!
Love to hear that! And thanks for sharing your experience with your Instant Pot. – Jason
I have been looking for a yellow rice replacement since we started our real food journey. Thank you!! I’m looking forward to trying this!
And we can get our boys to perform ANY chore and attend ANY event with the promise of plantains :):):).
Thank you!! WOOHOO!!
Haha! So glad we could help :) – Nicole
Can’t wait to try this one! What brand is that lunch box container you used for the picture? I need those!! :)
Hi Tracey,
Those are from Sistema. You can find out more about them in this post: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/our-new-lunch-boxes-and-bags/
-Nicole
I cant wait to try this- I bought a few plantains this week and have all the ingredients necessary! Keep the plantain recipes coming!
The black beans and rice were delicious. Plantains were tasteless and hard as a rock. I don’t know much about plantains. Were they not ripe enough? We had to grown them away.
Hi Martha, they may not have been ripe enough. When they are green, they are usually firm and startchy, that’s why cooking these with yellow ones work best. – Nicole
Pretty tasty! My husband, who is the pickiest person in our family, even said “This is pretty good.” I even got a “good dinner babe” as we were cleaning up! My kids both love red beans and rice so I figured this would be a hit with them. They both gave it a thumbs up. The only thing I will do differently next time is leave the lime juice out of the beans and serve with lime wedges. It just tasted a little off to me. Thanks for another tasty recipe!
Glad to hear it was a hit with the whole family. :) – Nicole
Yummy! My whole family ended up enjoying this. They weren’t too excited from the looks tho haha. My son did not like the plantains much but he doesn’t like bananas either. Loved the combo of everything. We especially liked the rice cooked w the turmeric surprisingly to me. I’ll definitely;y make rice like this more often. And I’ll make this for dinner again too. Thank you for sharing!.
This has gone into our regular rotation! We love how easy the leftovers are to reheat, and I add any extra rice to all kinds of things- it is so tasty!
We made this last night for dinner and thought it was delicious! The only change we made was to switch a chopped heirloom tomato for the red pepper. I’m not a big fan of raw peppers. We still had a lovely red color and a flavor we both enjoyed. The ripe plantains were excellent!