Easy rice and beans

Ingredients
A little less than 1 cup black rice*
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, minced (adjust amount to taste)
About 3 cups black beans (pre-soaked or canned)**
A handful of cilantro, chopped
1 avocado, cut into wedges and sliced


Cook rice, then turn off heat and let sit. Meanwhile, place a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, then the onion, and saute until translucent. Turn heat down to medium, add the garlic and peppers, and saute for another couple minutes.

Next, add the black beans and stir gently, breaking up any clumps, until heated through (you may need to add a little more olive oil at this point). Add cilantro (but save a few pinches for sprinkling over the top), stir a few times, then add the cooked rice and cook for another minute or until the rice is heated through.

Serve topped with avocado, with a tomato salad on the side.***


*a.k.a. Forbidden Rice. Kind of the opposite of local, but on the other hand, unpolished and really, really good.)
**Turns out Eden Organic actually has BPA-free cans.
***Unlike in the picture, which is how I did it originally, unless you want to first eat all of the tomatoes off the top and then proceed to the rest of it. Somehow, the textures don't quite go together.