Lima Bean Fried Rice

10 minutes prep 15 minutes active cooking 25 minutes total

Makes 2 servings

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"Fried Rice Template"

My friend Katherine Deumling of Cook With What You Have coined the term “fried rice template,” but I’m stealing it. We both love making tasty food by combining whatever leftovers we might have with the pantry staples we always have. I had both leftover cooked rice and lima beans, and while I thought about making a classic, Southern-style lima beans and rice dish, I turned instead to the fried rice template. If you don't have lima beans, any bean will work.

What You'll Need

Ingredients

For the shopping list

3-4 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 jalapeño
2 carrots
1 tablespoon of thyme
1 cup of cooked baby lima beans
1-2 teaspoons of Ponzu
To serve togarashi
To serve Crystal hot sauce

From our shop

2 teaspoons of Chile Crunch
$16.00– Denver - Colorado

Out of stock

2 cups, cooked of Kokuho Rose Heirloom White Rice
$6.00– San Joaquin Valley - California

Out of stock

As needed Madre Terra
$29.00– Sicily - Italy

Equipment

From the kitchen

1 Chef Knife
1 Cutting Board
1 Heavy Skillet
Spatula

"The foundation, of course, is leftover rice.

Always cook more rice that you need so you have leftovers. Other parts of the template include vegetables, either raw or cooked or both, and maybe some protein like meat or eggs. Beans have lots of protein, and the beans-and-rice connection is strong."

~ Jim Dixon, founder Wellspent and Real Good Food

What you'll have to do

Step 1

I cooked chopped onion, celery, and a jalapeno, a nod to Louisiana’s
trinity of aromatic vegetables. I added a carrot, salt, some chopped
garlic, and 1 tablespoon thyme to the skillet.

Step 2

When the vegetables were soft, I added a couple of cups or so of cooked rice (Koda Farms brown for me). I like to actually fry the rice to give some crunch, so I turned up the heat, poured in a little more oil, and let the rice sizzle for a few minutes before using a metal spatula to scrape the skillet and stir. Do this for about 5 minutes, then add a cup or more of cooked lima beans.

Step 3

Reduce the heat to low and cook until the beans have warmed through, about 5 minutes. Stir in a teaspoon or so of ponzu sauce; fried rice needs some soy sauce, and the citrus brightens up the flavor.