Best Vegetarian Main Dishes -- The Red Beans Thing That Has No Name But Has a Very Specific Taste

March now, which in Denver means the aspens are budding and the snowstorms are dramatic and unpredictable and the mud season begins in earnest. I grilled in a foot of snow Tuesday because there was a ribeye that needed to be cooked and because the snow is not my problem, the steak is my problem, and I solve one problem at a time. Lisa watched from the window. This is not the first time she has watched me grill in impractical conditions and it will not be the last.

Diego is doing a history project on New Mexico for school — they get to pick a state — and he chose New Mexico, which I'm choosing to interpret as an act of personal loyalty rather than the path of least research. He asked me to describe New Mexican food for his report and I gave him a ten-minute account that was probably three times longer than his assignment requires. He took notes with the patience of a kid who has been listening to his father talk about food his whole life and has developed a robust capacity for selective retention. He wrote: "New Mexico has a special kind of pepper called Hatch green chile that is very hot and also very good." This is accurate and also the best food writing I've seen all month.

Made a big pot of red beans and rice this week — not New Mexican exactly, but a dish Lisa's Louisiana grandmother made that Lisa taught me to make years ago and which I've adapted over time with green chile and cumin. This is what happens when a Hispano from Las Cruces marries a woman from Colorado Springs whose grandmother was from Louisiana: the food evolves into something without a name but with a very specific taste. Diego calls it "the red beans thing." Sofia calls it "that good thick soup." The twins call it "the one with the sausage." All correct. All inadequate. No description reaches what a dish actually is. That's why you cook it and eat it instead of talking about it.

The pot I made this week came out exactly right—thick enough for Sofia, sausage-y enough for the twins, and red enough for Diego to feel like the New Mexico section of his report had a culinary footnote. For anyone cooking meatless, the dish holds together just as well without the andouille; the green chile and cumin carry the weight, and what you get is still exactly what my family means when they say “the red beans thing.” I’m giving you the vegetarian version here, because it’s the one I can write down without it feeling like a betrayal of anything.

Best Vegetarian Main Dishes: Green Chile Red Beans & Rice

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 cans (15 oz each) dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup roasted Hatch green chiles, chopped (canned is fine)
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• Hot sauce, to serve

Instructions

1. Cook the rice. Combine rice, 3 cups broth, and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook 18–20 minutes until tender. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
2. Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and green bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.
3. Bloom the spices. Stir in cumin, smoked paprika, thyme, oregano, and cayenne. Cook 30–60 seconds until fragrant, stirring constantly so the spices don’t scorch.
4. Build the pot. Add diced tomatoes (with juices), green chiles, beans, bay leaves, salt, and black pepper. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer.
5. Simmer low and slow. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer uncovered 25–30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces and the mixture thickens into a stew. Use the back of a spoon to mash a few beans against the side of the pot—this thickens the sauce naturally.
6. Taste and finish. Remove bay leaves. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, and cayenne as needed. The dish should be thick, not soupy.
7. Serve. Spoon rice into bowls and ladle beans generously over the top. Pass hot sauce at the table.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 71g | Fiber: 11g | Sodium: 620mg