I love taking concepts from old recipes and reinventing them into something new. For this Tomato Herb Rice with White Beans and Spinach I’ve taken my (not) Sun Dried Tomato Sauce and used it to flavor a rice and bean combo, similar to my Spanish Chickpeas and Rice. The resulting dish is a full flavored, filling concoction that can be served as either a vegetarian (or vegan) main dish, or a side to go with just about any type of grilled meat. After eating my first bowl I thought that this would also be a great meal if topped with a fried egg (because fried eggs on everything).
What Type of Skillet is Best?
As with most rice dishes, the success of this recipe depends greatly on having a heavy bottomed skillet or pot. The heat from your burner must be distributed evenly for the rice to cook evenly, so find your thickest, heaviest pot or deep skillet to use for this recipe. I’m using the 3 qt. covered sauté pan from OXO that came with this set.
Can I Make This with Brown Rice?
Unfortunately simply swapping brown rice for the white rice in this recipe will not work. Brown rice requires more liquid and a longer cooking time to cook through, so several adjustments would need to be made to make brown rice work. Unfortunately I have not tested or developed a brown rice version of this recipe.
Tomato Herb Rice with White Beans and Spinach
Servings 6 8 cups total/1.33 cups eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.22)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp dried rosemary ($0.03)
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 3 oz. tomato paste (about 1/4 cup) ($0.33)
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.25)
- 1 15oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes ($1.50)
- 1 15oz. can cannellini beans ($1.29)
- 1/4 lb. frozen chopped spinach ($0.43)
- 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice ($0.48)
- 1.5 cups vegetable broth* ($0.19)
Instructions
- Place the spinach in a bowl and allow it to thaw slightly as you prepare the beginning of the recipe.
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Set the onion aside. Add the olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, a pinch of crushed red pepper, and a little freshly cracked black pepper (about 10 cranks of a pepper mill) to a heavy bottomed pot or deep skillet. Sauté the garlic and spices over medium-low heat for about one minute.
- Add the tomato paste and brown sugar to the pot and continue to sauté for 2-3 minutes, or until the tomato paste takes on a deep burgundy color. Add the onion and salt and continue to sauté for a few minutes more, or until the onions become soft and transparent.
- Meanwhile, drain and rinse the cannellini beans in a colander. Add the diced tomatoes (with juices), cannellini beans, spinach, and uncooked rice to the pot. Pour in the vegetable broth and stir briefly to combine the ingredients.
- Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow the contents to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to the lowest setting that allows the liquid to maintain a simmer. Let the pot simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed (there may still be some around the edges. Turn the heat off and let the pot rest, undisturbed, for 10 additional minutes.
- Finally, fluff the contents of the pot with a fork, making sure to not stir vigorously. Serve immediately.
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Tomato Herb Rice – Step by Step Photos
Start by mincing two cloves of garlic and dicing one onion so they’re ready to go when you need them. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil to a heavy bottomed pot or deep skillet, along with the minced garlic, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp rosemary, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and a little freshly cracked pepper (about 10 cranks of a pepper mill). Sauté the spices over medium-low heat for about one minute.
Add 3oz. tomato paste (about 1/4 cup) and 1/2 tsp brown sugar to the pot. Continue to sauté for 2-3 more minutes, or until the tomato paste takes on a darker burgundy color.
Add the diced onion and 1/4 tsp salt. Sauté until the onion is soft and transparent.
Add one 15oz. can of fire roasted diced tomatoes (with juices), 1/4 lb. frozen chopped spinach (does not need to be completely thawed), one 15oz. can cannellini beans (rinsed and drained), and one cup uncooked long grain white rice.
Finally, add 1.5 cups vegetable broth and stir briefly to combine the ingredients.
This is what I use to make my broth because I can mix up any volume that I need (unlike bouillon cubes) with no leftovers (like cans or boxes of broth), the packaging is small, and once opened it lasts just about forever in the fridge. #winning #notsponsored
Place a lid on your pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and let it come up to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to the lowest setting that still allows the liquid to simmer. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed (there may still be a bit pooling around the edges). Turn the heat off and let it sit for 10 minutes with the lid in place.
Carefully fluff the tomato herb rice without over stirring (you don’t want the beans to break down or the rice to get gummy). Serve immediately! Or garnish with a bit of parsley to make it look even prettier, like I did. ;)
we meal plan every week- and we are so happy we found your site!!! this was my first recipe from you- WE LOVED IT. went to our ‚recipe master‘!
The spinach in the finished product photos looks a bit overcooked. Have you ever tried adding it later, in the last 10 minutes or so of cooking, so it stays green?
You could definitely try that. I haven’t tried it, though. :)
This looks delicious and is on the rotation for this week! I’m looking to freeze the leftovers-do you think this recipe will hold up in the freezer?
I think this one would freeze pretty well. You can test it by just freezing one serving first and thawing/reheating it the next day just to see before freezing more.
This was so easy, cheap, and tasty!! And vegan, if you are into that sort of thing :-) I’ve made this twice now and both times 1.5 cups of vegetable broth wasn’t enough, I ended up having to add about 1/2 cup of water because the rice dried up before it finished cooking. That could be due to the amount of liquid in the brand of canned tomatoes I bought, the type of rice I used, whatever. Still super tasty :)
Hi Beth! What skillet are you using? It looks very useful. Thanks!!
It’s my Oxo deep skillet: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Tri-Ply-Stainless-Covered-Skillet/dp/B00PCI7DHI/ref=sr_1_4?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1496959195&sr=1-4&keywords=oxo+covered+skillet
So delicious!
So delicious!
I think this may be my absolute favorite recipe of yours. It’s so simple but so flavorful and I LOVE it!
This was delicious but the rice was not fully cooked when the cooking/sitting time was up, and all of the liquid was gone. I had to add about a cup more broth and simmer a bit longer. But I’ll make it again with more liquid added at the beginning next time.
Can you use brown rice ?!
Not as written. The recipe would need to be adjusted quite a bit to accommodate brown rice.
I made it with brown rice, it had to cook a lot longer and I used 2 cups stock
So disappointed. After reading the comments I upped the stock to two cups. I thought that there would be plenty of liquid. The rice did not cook. I added more stock until the carton was empty. I continued to cook and the rice is still hard. I’m going to leave it on the stove and see if any magic happens. The flavor is good so maybe I should have used Uncle Ben’s or pre-cooked rice and added it in at the end. I wonder what I did wrong?
Did you keep a lid on the pot while cooking to retain the water to be soaked into the rice?
If i wanted to replace the white beans with a 19oz can of chick peas, do any adjustments to cooking time or added liquid be required?
Best, J
You should be able to substitute that without any additional changes. :)
Made this tonight with lentils instead of white beans. Served it to kids with tortillas.
All eaten no nagging needed.
Amazing. I made it in pressure cooker – same process just at put rice etc in step – cook it for 16min. Came out perfect .
I used long grain jasmine rice I had soaked overnight.
The flavors are delicious!
A couple comments:
-It is helpful if the ingredients list is ordered by how the ingredients appear in the recipe. Otherwise you are kind of scrambling to get everything together in time.
-The onion takes more than just a few minutes to really cook down over medium-low heat.
-The simmering and water evaporation also took longer than the recipe said, but I used brown rice so that may be a contributor
All your recipes look so delicious! Will be trying a few soon. Can you please tell me what type of frying pan you use? Is it stainless steel?
Does`nt the food stick onto the pan?
That is a stainless steel skillet made by OXO. :) Starchy and sugary foods tend to stick, but if you’re using a lot of moisture, like in this dish, the steam helps keep everything from sticking. It will only start to stick if it dries out. There is definitely a technique to using stainless and learning how to keep things from sticking.
Thanks very much for this recipe – I think I’ve made this three times in the past fews weeks. It’s just too good. Love your blog, and I appreciate that you put the recipe at the top, with pictures below. That formatting makes it so much easier to meal plan for the week, not having to hunt through the page for the actual ingredients list!