A classic is a classic, and vice-versa.

(In Portuguese)

The classic in question is rice and beans, which always has one small change or another, but I never get tired of it.
After a couple days without stoping at home, I went to the supermarket and cooked a lunch comme il faut.
I had it with a colorful yummy salad, and a roasted pumpkin slice that doesn't show in the pictures.

For the salad:
3 kale leaves
5 purple cabbage leaves
1 carrot
1/2 cucumber

I soaked all of the vegetables in water with vinegar for at least 15 minutes,
to make sure they were throughly clean. Then I washed one by one in running water.
The kale stems went straight to the beans broth, chopped.
The rest of the leaves I rolled up as a tight cigar, and cut in strips.
I also cut the carrot in long thin strips, and the cucumber in slices.
Done, I decided to make this a raw salad, seasoned with salt, lemon and olive oil.
You could throw in any colorful vegetable that may be available:
beets, radishes, tomatos, korn, whatever creative tells you.


For the beans:
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups previously cooked black beans*
5 small yams, previously cooked
The kale stems leftover from the salad
Salt

After peeling the garlic, I mashed them with a knife. I cut the onion in strips and threw them both in the pan along with the pepper, cumin seeds and butter.
I sauteed it all over low heat until the onion turned transparent and soft.
I added the beans and water (I think it was something around two or three cups).
I mashed the yams with a fork and added to the broth, letting it cook until thickened.
I took about half an hour.
At the end I seasoned with salt and threw in the chopped kale stems,  and let it cook for 5 minutes more before turning off the heat.

For the rice:
1/2 cup rice
1 teaspoon oil
1 cup water 

In a small pan, I stir the rice and oil together. I let it fry over high heat until it's almost starting to burn, it should be crackling. So I pour in the water and let it cook over medium heat until the water dries out, and after turning off the heat I let it in the pan, lid on, for 5 minutes more.
I use this method for any kind of white or brown rice.
I swear it comes out fluffy.

After all of that, I cut a slice out of the pumpkin that had been roasting in the oven.
To roast it, I washed the pumpkin in running water, placed in a baking sheet, loosely covered with foil, and let it for 20 minutes in a medium heat (180oC) and another 1 hour and 40 minutes in low heat (130oC), until it was very soft.

* I have the habit of cooking 500g beans each time and freezing it unseasoned,
so that I can prepare it easy and quick anytime I need. I let them soak overnight and cook until tender, with just one teaspoon of cumin seeds. (The cumin is said to prevent certain gastric problems that beans might cause... you know).
After that, just let it cool and freeze in tupperwares.