Slow Cooker Black Beans and Rice

I decided to try something that didn't have meat. I'm exploring eating a more plant-based diet. This is partly due to reading The Vegucation of Robin: How Real Food Saved My Life.

THE RECIPE:

Ingredients

2 cups dried black beans, rinsed and soaked overnight in plenty of water
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup brown rice
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 cups vegetable broth
1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. salt
⅛ tsp. cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

Directions

Step 1
Drain beans. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add rice; cook and stir for 3–5 minutes or until rice is fragrant. Combine in 4–5 quart slow cooker along with beans, onion, garlic, and vegetable broth. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, stirring every two hours.
Step 2
Then add tomatoes, cumin, salt, and pepper, stirring well. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours longer until rice and beans are tender. Add cilantro and mix. Serve hot.

What I Learned

You can ask Alexa "how many cups is one medium chopped onion." That was very cool.

I needed that as instead of buying the onion and using my food processor, I just bought it pre-chopped. This also goes for cilantro.

You also want to take the time to read the directions. I skimmed them and ended up putting everything into my Instant Pot hours before it was supposed to (this turned everything black)

When a recipe says to soak the beans overnight DO IT. I was BLOWN AWAY by how much water they soaked up. I needed up putting my two cups of beans into a giant mixing bowl (after singing them off). Do not skip that step.

Also, be sure to run water in your slow cooker (Instant pot for me) when you're done.

How it Tasted

There are different scales I need to come up with. I guess these are:

Uneditable

I ate it but won't make it again

This was good, and I'll make it again

I want to make some more now.

This recipe has a bit of zip (enough to clear your sinuses, but not enough to make a dash for a glass of milk). It doesn't taste like anything else I've made because I've never eaten this before.

I was also amazed at how full I was with one bowl (about three servings spoons).

I put the recipe into my Cronomiter software and it was 168 calories for a bowl. (The recipe serves six).