Navy Beans with Beet Greens and Tomato, Brown Rice (experimenting with oil core rice cooking) (No Added Fat)

I like Saladmaster pans; they are made of a high quality stainless steel mixed with titanium which is non-reactive to food, and are one of my secrets of no added fat cooking as food sticking is not much of an issue. I have an electric 5-quart oil core roaster; it has oil sealed in it that quickly heats up and evenly warms the contents from bottom and sides.

I tried it out for the first time a few days ago and used it in a Food for Life class yesterday at a venue that doesn't have a kitchen. It heats up quickly and seems to be even in its heat distribution. I love being able to cook without a stove.

It seems so easy to make brown rice in the MP5 that I thought I'd give it a try - I just put in a cup of rinsed brown rice, two cups of water, and a vegan bouillon cube. I pressed a button twice to get into a "rice 2" program, then put the cover on. I didn't pay close attention to time, but it was only about a half hour by the time the MP5 finished. Here are details of the main dish of navy beans with beet greens and tomato, as well as more on the rice.


Ingredients

• 1 cup navy beans, rinsed and then soaked for about 10 hours, and then rinsed again
• Enough water to just cover the navy beans
• Greens (tops) from bunch of beets, cut into approximately 1" lengths (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 cloves garlic, finely (1/8" or so) diced
• 1/2 t diced (approx. 1/8" or smaller) ginger
• 1/4 t curry powder (or turmeric)
• (optional) 1/2 t black sesame seed
• Vegan bouillon cube
• 1 cup onion cut into approx. 1/4" cubes
• 1 cup tomato cut into approx. 1/2" cubes
• 1/2 t salt
• 2t lime (or lemon) juice

Process

1. I put the beans, rice, greens, ginger, garlic, curry powder, black sesame seed, and bouillon cube into my Instant Pot pressure cooker and cooked for 25m.
2. After the cooking was done, I waited a few minutes and gently released pressure, then added salt, onion, tomato, and lime juice, and served. 

Results

Dinner was good! My daughter initially complained when she heard that I was cooking navy beans; she loves black beans but said she didn't like navy beans. But even she enjoyed all of the dinner items.

I thought that the beans were a little firmer than they could have been, and could have benefited from another few minutes of cooking. The rice was really good! Initially, it had absorbed the water and was certainly edible, but could benefit from a bit more cooking, so I let it go for another 4 or 5 minutes with another 1/4 cup or so of water.

Ideas for the future

I want to make brown rice side-by-side in my Instant Pot, Saladmaster MP5, and Zojirushi rice cooker and see how it differs. Also, cooking beet root would have been interesting with the beans, adding color and another taste dimension.