Christmas Dinner of Leftover Seitan with Vegetables, Served with Peruvian Giant Lima Beans (No Added Fat)

Merry Christmas! Back in late April, I found that rice and beans can be cooked easily with each other at the same time, taking into account some words of wisdom that I had read. I was going to have some leftover seitan with vegetables from earlier in the week, and wanted to make some rice. But I love Peruvian giant lima beans and decided to not just make rice, but make a rice and beans dish, as well. I've tried cooking rice and beans together a few times, and it always has worked out.

I hadn't soaked the beans, but they cook fairly well. I usually soak them (overnight with room temperature water or for at least 30m in boiling water) and then get good results in 28-30m. I thought I'd put 1/2 cup of beans and 1/2 cup of brown rice into the my Instant Pot pressure cooker. I've had good luck with about a half hour cooking of rice and beans in a 1:3 ratio so thought I'd go with 3 cups of water and a 35m cook time. When I went to cook, however, I found I didn't have plain brown rice in stock - so I'll have to try this some other time.

For today, I just put 1/2 cup of the Peruvian giant lima beans into the pressure cooker with a vegan bouillon cube, 3/4 cup onion cut into 3/4" cubes, and enough water to just cover, and cooked for 35m. I served it with the leftover seitan and vegetables.

Dinner was good. The beans, curiously, were mostly done, but just three or four were a bit hard. I wonder if with such a small quantity of beans there was some issue maybe with a few beans being above the level of the water, perhaps. I love the creamy Peruvian giant lima beans - I didn't even add any salt or other seasoning! As I expected, by cooking the onion (I usually add raw onion at the end) so long, it really melted into the broth and formed a gravy.