Caribbean Black Beans and Coconut Rice

by Brittany on June 5, 2008

We had an Island theme for Melanie and Connor’s birthday party last weekend and I thought beans and coconut rice sounded really good as a side dish. I looked for a recipe but couldn’t find one that sounded perfect so I improvised…and this is what I came up with. It turned out delicious! The peppers came from Costco in that bag of red, orange and yellow sweet peppers – they are small and 4 probably equal one large bell pepper if that works better for you. The color really made the dish look pretty though so make sure you don’t just buy a plain green one! I steamed the rice like usual but just added the thyme to the water. I’m sure long grain white rice would be good too. This recipe serves 10-12 so you might want to cut it down if you’re making it for a small family!

Caribbean Beans and Rice

submitted by Brittany

5-6 c cooked jasmine rice (2 cups uncooked rice)

1 tsp dried thyme (or one Tb fresh)

1-2 Tb canola oil

4-5 small sweet peppers of red, orange and yellow

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch of green onions, sliced thinly

4 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can Thai Kitchen coconut milk

While the rice is cooking, saute the peppers and garlic in the oil until soft. Add the green onions and saute 2-3 minutes more. Stir in the black beans and warm through then add the rice and coconut milk. Stir over med-low heat until well combined and heated through. Serve hot.

**I really like Thai Kitchen brand coconut milk – it is less watery than other brands and tastes better, I think. When you open the can, the top half will be solidified so be careful when you spoon it out since the bottom will be liquid. Don’t use the light coconut milk though – I know the regular is fattening but it’s only one can for this big dish! Better yet, don’t even look at the fat content!

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Janae June 7, 2008 at 3:01 pm

My husband went on a mission to Jamaica and we learned how to make the original rice and peas.They actually cook the rice with coconut milk and we throw red kidney beans, green onions sliced, sugar and we put Italian seasoning from Costco all in before we cook the rice. We then Fry Chicken and with the drippings put Ketchup and FLour and water to thicken the ketchup and drippings. We put this Ketchup gravy over the rice. It is very authentic we ate some while we were in jamaica and I was surprised how similar it was. We have also tried the powdered coconut milk that is our favorite but we have yet to find it in the United States

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2 Brittany June 7, 2008 at 5:30 pm

Janae-a mission to Jamaica? Neat! I have tried the rice cooked in coconut milk but I think it has a stonger taste mixed in afterward. It’s totally my personal preference… I certainly dont pretend to be making an authentic dish! I do want to try it with kidney beans though – sounds delicious.

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3 Mindy June 11, 2008 at 4:27 pm

This was delicious! I love coconut anything. :)

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4 Anonymous July 31, 2008 at 8:26 pm

I made this up last night (halved the recipe though . . . and it will still take us several days to eat it!). I forgot to rinse the beans so the rice is kind of “gray” :( but still tastes great. I love this recipe.
XO MOM

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5 Heather April 14, 2013 at 5:57 am