Another week working part time at home. I think without the technology we have today, it would be much harder to work at home. I use both Microsoft Teams and Slack to work on different projects. Both allow me to keep in touch with my colleagues easily. VPN technology has improved too. I don’t need to be at my desk to access my work network. Even with working at home, only having limited time where I can separate myself from work is really hard. I may have the day off, but it doesn’t always work out. I’m living with it now, but I don’t know how it will be a month from now. A lot of public health and healthcare workers are in the same boat. We are all doing our best to make sure this blows over faster, but it feels like it’s not fast enough.

This recipe is one I haven’t heard of before, but it uses black beans and chickpeas. These are easy to get from the grocery store. Some of these bean recipes that use the more exotic types of beans can be a little tough to do, especially when you cannot get the right type of bean at your local grocery store. The recipe for Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas came from Juliep at AllRecipes. I picked this up from a recipe collection called Beans and Rice from Around the World. This recipe does have meat in it, which I will omit. It also lacks in vegetables to make this a full meal. Other than that, it’s a pretty solid recipe. One you can do in an afternoon with things you may already have in your pantry. Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I deleted the turkey to make this vegetarian.
• I used dry beans to use up what I have around the house.
• I added red bell pepper and carrot to increase the vitamins A and C.
• I replaced the chicken broth with low sodium vegetable broth to make this vegetarian.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas

Serves 8

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup uncooked brown basmati rice
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 quart vegetable stock
• 1 cup dry garbanzo beans
• 1 cup dry black beans
• 1 bunch chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1 bunch chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (optional)
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Add the beans to a pot and cover with water.  Soak 8 hours to overnight.
2. Drain the beans and rinse.  Return them back to the pot and cover with 1 quart of stock.  Bring to a boil and cook for 40 minutes or until tender.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, carrot, and bell pepper, and cook 5 minutes. Stir in rice, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, then pour in 1 quart vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.
4. Gently mix garbanzo beans, black beans, cilantro, parsley, and pine nuts into the cooked rice. Season with pepper.