Recipe: Clare Scrine’s One-Pot Rice and Bean Bake, For When You Can’t Be Bothered Cooking

I always imagined that as I grew older, my cooking would become more elaborate. That I’d spend weekends dehydrating my own beef jerky or hand-gutting market fish for slow Sunday stews. The reality has been quite the opposite. I’ve learnt that the real kitchen victories are the straightforward dishes where the taste far surpasses the effort required.

This hearty rice and bean bake, by Brisbane food writer Clare Scrine, is one of those dishes. “This meal is hands-off, easily veganised, and feels far tastier than it should be, given its simplicity,” writes Scrine in her cookbook The Shared Kitchen, which also includes winning recipes for veggie moussaka and green pasta bake.

It’s a true one-pot affair: simply rinse the rice, toss the ingredients into a baking dish and let the oven do the heavy lifting while you whiz up a fresh salsa verde. And if that’s a stretch, Scrine says you can skip the salsa and drizzle the bake with your favourite hot sauce instead.

The dish is also highly adaptable. You can easily make it vegan by omitting the cheese (or swapping in a plant-based version), and the capsicums can be replaced with what’s in your crisper – mushrooms, zucchini, or cauliflower all work beautifully. If you’re swapping white rice for brown, just remember to add an extra cup of stock to keep it moist. Quinoa is another great alternative.

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Clare Scrine’s vegetarian rice and bean bake recipe

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

300g (1½) cups long-grain or basmati rice

375ml (1½ cups) vegetable stock

60ml (¼ cup) olive oil

2 tomatoes, finely diced

2 yellow capsicums, finely diced

1 small brown onion, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 heaped tsp ground cumin

1 heaped tsp ground coriander

1 heaped tsp smoky paprika

1 heaped tsp dried oregano

500g (2 cups) tomato passata

Salt and pepper

400g tin refried beans

70g grated cheddar

Sour cream and/or guacamole, to serve (optional)

Coriander salsa verde

60g (2 cups) coriander stems and leaves

35g (¼ cup) pickled jalapenos, plus 60 ml (¼ cup) of the pickling liquid

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

60ml (¼ cup) olive oil

1 garlic clove

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan-forced.

Rinse the rice well under running water, then transfer to a large baking dish, similar to what you’d cook a lasagne in. Stir in the stock, olive oil, tomato, capsicum, onion, garlic, spices and dried oregano. Add about 375g (1½ cups) of the passata and a generous pinch of salt and pepper, then gently stir to combine, ensuring that the veggies and spices are well distributed. Taste the liquid to make sure you’ve added enough seasoning – it should taste quite salty.

Combine the refried beans with the remaining passata and 125ml (½ cup) of water. Spoon the bean mixture over the uncooked rice mix and spread it out in an even layer, leaving a 1-2cm border around the edges.

Sprinkle over the cheese, then transfer to the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the cheese is golden and the rice mix is bubbling up around the sides. Test a grain of rice to ensure that it’s cooked through.

Meanwhile, to make the coriander salsa verde, combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth, adding a splash of water, if necessary, to get the ingredients going. Taste the salsa and adjust the seasoning to taste. The salsa can be stored in the fridge for a week or two, and is brilliant on just about everything.

Serve the bake warm, alongside sour cream and/or guacamole, with the salsa verde drizzled over the top.

Images and text extracted from The Shared Kitchen by Clare Scrine, published by Smith Street Books in 2022 ($45.00). Photography by Yaseera Moosa.