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. ;)
This was so delicious!!!
I didn’t have tomato paste or canned tomatoes so I used ketchup, omitted the brown sugar, and diced up some fresh tomatoes lol. It turned out great! I will definitely be making this again :)
Didn’t have tomato paste so used ketchup instead. Now that’s gangsta! I love it! Almost want to try it.
I took the chance and used brown basmati rice, added 1/2 cup more broth. With the brown rice cooking time is longer. Used 6 garlic cloves garlic. Came out good! This recipe seems versatile, next time I will try kale. So far none of Beth’s recipes have failed.
For the thyme and rosemary, do I use ground or dryleaves? Thanks.
I used dry leaves.
To everyone having trouble cooking rice. Here’s a trick I learned from another blogger.
DON’T COOK THE RICE AT ALL! Crazy? It CAN be done!
Put the 1 cup of rice, in a 2 cup measuring cup.
Put water over the rice, and immediately dump the water off the rice. Keep doing this, until the water remains clear and you can see the rice through the water.
Fill the measuring cup with rice in it, to the 2 cup line.
Then let the rice SOAK, for an hour, while you do something else.
Set a timer for 55 minutes. When it goes off, put your 1.5 cups of broth (or water & vegetable stock paste/vegetable bullion) in a sauce pan on high,.
Add any spices & seasonings you’ll be using to the broth.
Turn the heat on high, to get the broth boiling.
Meanwhile, 5 minutes have probably passed, and the rice is done soaking.
Pour the water off the rice, through a strainer.
Set the rice in the strainer down for a minute.
Check to see if the broth is boiling again.
If it is, dump the rice in the boiling water.
THEN TURN THE HEAT OFF, and keep it off.
Let the rice sit in the heated broth, for 10 minutes.
Check the rice. It should be soaking up all the broth.
Taste test the rice, to see if it’s at the doneness you like.
If it isn’t to your liking, let it sit for 5 minutes more, then test again.
Keep letting it sit there and taste testing every 5 minutes, until it IS to your liking.
If it soaked up all the broth, and isn’t done yet, just add a half cup of water,, and stir in the rice, to loosen it up.
IF YOU USE THIS METHOD, YOU’LL NEVER BURN RICE AGAIN because the heat is turned off during the whole “cooking” process.
Also, all the rinsing b4 “cooking”, will get rid of extra starch and any other impurities.
Plus, YOU control how done it gets, and it gets seasoned, as it “cooks”.
As soon as I saw this recipe, I went, “Bingo! THIS is what’s for dinner!” It’s cooking now, and I’m looking forward to it. The only change I made was using a big bunch of fresh chard, all chopped up (saving the stems to use in something else) instead of frozen spinach, because that’s what I had. Thanks for the recipe — it promises to be yummy!
I love this recipe so much! We are on a rice and beans budget and desperately trying to add some variety in our meals and this does the trick! I’ve hacked it a bit, one of my main tricks is instead of veggie broth I add the same amount of water with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and a good squeeze of spicy brown mustard. It alters the flavor a bit but I have tried this trick in a few recipes and it’s a good stand in for broth.
I would love more one pot rice and beans recipes from you! I am a big fan 😄
Sounds like a great dish to do in the instant pot. Going to put it on my list for this week, I have everything already. Think I’ll use red ride or a wild blend though per another comment.
Looking forward to it
do you have an adaptation for the instant pot?
Do you think any significant changes would have to be made if I did this with chicken broth instead of vegetable?
Nope, that should be an effortless swap. :)
oh my gosh, this recipe is tasty quick and easy the only thing I did was add a little more spinach maybe an ounce or two and some trader Joe’s garlic salt to spice it up a bit more also some feta helped too
Going to try this in the slow cooker tomorrow, the AC is out, it too hot to cook
We make this one almost weekly and always love the way it turns out. Wanted to leave a comment to address a few of the 1-stars I see here. We use a thick large-base saucepan that cooks the rice evenly after about 17 minutes at medium-low (definitely more on the medium side).
We also use red rice instead of white rice so it’s a little bit heartier. Love the combo of the beans and spinach. Very tasty!
This is simple but lacks developed flavor for a dish that takes so long. As a vegan this needs some serious kick in the pants, and the rice never developed I almost felt bad throwing out this meal but white rice has very little nutritional value anyway it went right into my compost.
Not sure what I did wrong? Followed recipe exactly but for some odd reason it looks like mush and the rice is still a little crunchy!😔
I have to be doing this wrong, the last few times I just ended up with stuck burnt rice at the bottom of my pot.
Any pointers?
If you can, lower the heat even more. It may also be that your cookware is too thin and not transferring the heat well (thin bottomed pots will create super hot spots that burn the rice instead of providing an even diffuse heat).
Just made this! Had to improvise a bit since I did not have garlic, onions or tomato paste, and used chick[peas instead of cannellini beans but still so good! : ))) Have also recommended this recipe to my sister in law and friend who are both new moms as a great EASY to make healthy dinner!