Berbere Black Rice w/ Tomatoes and Cashews Recipe
Looking for a hearty, tasty, plant-based whole-food dish that’ll fill you up and maybe also spice up whatever is in your usual rotation? This was thrown together with items we had on hand, it tastes like an Ethiopian variant of jambalaya, and it is now a family fave.
This house always has a bulk bin full of black rice, because it is delicious, bursting with fiber, a plant-based protein, and has abundant anthocyanins. What are anthocyanins, again? They are powerful flavonoids that “possess antioxidative and antimicrobial activities, improve visual and neurological health, and protect against various non-communicable diseases.” Anthocyanins not only improve your vision and the health of your nervous system, they prevent oxidative stress (animal products perpetuate this) because they are handy antioxidants that prevent against heart disease and cancer. You won’t get this from your plain, white rice because it has been stripped of its hull, unlike these dark purple wonder grains. (We’ve been working through the same 11lb bag of black rice since January 6th, and we cook it a couple times a week.)
As seen in the recipe for Ethiopian Style Lentils we also always have berbere in the cabinet, because it is one of our favorite spices.
We’re all in a remain-in-place state at present, this household has no desire to be at grocery stores more than is absolutely necessary (Ian’s done one run and it was late at night to avoid crowds, otherwise we’re living off dried goods and kale/avocado/citrus drop-offs from Ian’s father), and budgets are TIGHT over here (I was laid off a month ago —when Onondaga County’s schools closed— and we relied on that income to make ends meet) so we’ve been working dishes through the sieve of “What items do we have around? How can we stretch them out, but still make them flavorful/healthful?”
Thank goodness for Stone’s Throw Farm and the last bulbs of our CSA alliums (onions, garlic), Aldi’s cashews, and canned (or jarred if you have some!) tomato.
By combining all-of-the-above with the previously mentioned berbere and black rice: you get a scrumptious, hearty, satisfying rice dish that is full of flavor, fiber, plant-based protein, and antioxidants (<— important for robust immune systems) …and it’s not just the anthocyanin health-harking in glory, those tomatoes are packed with lycopene: another antioxidant fighting against heart disease, cancer, and stroke risk.
Most importantly: this dish feeds you (and yours) without harming the earth or your own body like you would by consuming a fiberless, protein-dense animal product meal.
Wait? I get that I need to be eating more fiber (which I can only get from plants), and that you’re always going to bring your recipes back to environmental issues, but why is too much protein a bad thing?!
First, that “protein-dense” hyperlink above is leading to a great article relaying that eating more that your recommended amount of protein can lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, calcium-leached bones, liver disease, kidney disease, and cancer; but here’s a research study stating that same:
”Extra protein is not used efficiently by the body and may impose a metabolic burden on the bones, kidneys, and liver. Moreover, high-protein/high-meat diets may also be associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease due to intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol or even cancer.”
Yeah, but that’s just one study! There are many to be found, Dear Soul. Here’s the American Heart Association saying the same in relation to why lowering your consumption of animal protein will lower your risk of various diet-caused diseases:
Whether you’re considering eating less meat or giving it up entirely, the benefits are clear: less risk of disease and improved health and well-being. Specifically, less meat decreases the risk of:
Obesity
Many cancers
Here’s a video by Dr. Michael Greger showing those excess proteins and fats (from our Standard American meat/cheese/more meat/ice cream/saturated-fat snack diets) are clogging up the arteries of our children (found in*** 100%*** of children by age 10, and is seen in children as young as SEVEN MONTHS!!!)
Learning this (and confirming it through other studies) was such an informational slap-up-the-head (and dagger to the heart) that I can’t get it out of my mind. I’ve covered it before, and I’ll keep covering it. I will be hollering about the fatty streaks in the hearts of children until we all absorb the absurdity of what we’re doing to ourselves, our children, our planet, other species: merely for the sake of taste.
So with a mind-rattled to wakefulness to the environmental and health imperatives of switching to plant-based, whole-foods; and a soul over here (*waves*) who wouldn’t eat something herself (or recommend it) unless it was delicious, healthy, affordable, and environmentally kind (all in that order): here is the step-by-step recipe that will fill you up and help heal the earth.