Where last week’s recipe was flighty and fancy, this Hands-free Black Bean and Brown Rice Casserole is more sensible and functional — not exactly dinner party fare but highly amenable to that evening slump in energy and inspiration when you require dinner but wish to neither think nor try. While my blog is not generally a perky resource for busy people with many mouths to feed — it’s merely a collection of recipes that I love — I aim, at least, to be practical about the outwardly impractical. This recipe, however, is pure pragmatism without qualification. You plonk a bunch of long-life pantry ingredients in an oven dish, bake for an hour, and there’s your dinner.

The two hardest things about this recipe are locating an avocado that won’t let you down physically, psychologically, and financially; and carrying the dish of hot liquid to the oven without spilling (and please, consider this your warning to move with caution.) The rest is so easy and, as the title suggests, hands-free that I almost felt light-headed from the lack of responsibility.

I took inspiration directly from this Southwestern Black Bean Casserole, having recently become an ardent convert to cooking brown rice in the oven and wanting to do it more often. It’s called a “dump and bake” recipe, an Americanism that doesn’t appeal to me linguistically but is, I concede, concisely pertinent. Though the recipe was already wonderfully simple I’ve streamlined it further by eliminating the onion and using jarred roasted peppers. Speaking of obsessions: with capsicums rarely affordable, a $5-ish jar of roasted red peppers allows me to feel like a king. I’m using their names interchangeably here but for your reference, the jars I buy call them peppers, the fresh ones on the shelf are called capsicums, and it’s all the same vegetable.

The resulting dish is robust, calming, and bolstering, the sort of food that should be eaten out of bowls while wearing soft, elasticated fabrics (despite me dishing it onto The Food Photography Plate for the purposes of this blog; ignore my aesthetics and put it in a bowl). As I said before, it’s not fancy — but it is filling and delicious, with the tender, creamy beans jostling pleasantly alongside the densely-textured brown rice, their heartiness lifted by the salsa and the ebullient fragrance of coriander. A little cumin and smoked paprika lend earthy spice; and the avocado — though not crucial, but undeniably appealing — brings delight to the otherwise workhorse vibes.

While I love winter there’s no denying that the encroaching darkness exacerbates exhaustion levels; so should you want further low-effort dinner recipes where the oven takes care of it all, I’d suggest my Sheet Pan Gnocchi Puttanesca, my Oven-baked Pearl Couscous with Pumpkin, Sundried Tomatoes and Feta, or my Green Garlic Oyster Mushrooms (this one uses a food processor, so not entirely in the clear for minimising dishes but worth the effort nonetheless.)

Hands-free Black Bean and Brown Rice Casserole

Just throw stuff in a baking dish and an hour later dinner is yours. The pantry ingredients add to the effortlessness, though a fresh avocado and coriander makes it even better. This is simple and cosy, ideal for weeknight dinners. Recipe adapted a little from the Southwestern Black Bean Casserole at From My Bowl.

• 3/4 cup (130g) brown basmati rice
• 2 cups (500ml) boiling water
• 1 roasted red pepper (capsicum) from a jar
• 1 x 400g tin black beans
• 1 chicken stock cube, or flavour of your choice
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 cup (125ml) jarred tomato salsa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 ripe avocado and a handful of coriander leaves, to serve
• Optional considerations: lime wedges, chilli flakes

1: Set your oven to 200C/400F. Briefly rinse the 3/4 cup of brown basmati rice, and flick the kettle on to boil the 500ml water.

2: While the water boils, dice the roasted red pepper and tip the pieces into a medium-sized oven dish (mine is 24x16cm) — although to truly cut down your washing-up you could use kitchen scissors to snip the pepper directly into the dish. Drain the tin of beans and add them to the dish in an even layer, followed by the rice. Pour the 2 cups of boiled water over everything, then crumble in the stock cube and sprinkle over the teaspoon each of cumin and smoked paprika. Finally, spoon over the 1/2 cup of tomato salsa.

3: Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for an hour. Once this time is up, take the dish from the oven and give it a stir — be careful as you remove the foil, as there’s a lot of steam under there. Then, put the foil cover back on and let the dish sit on the bench for ten minutes, during which time more liquid will absorb into the rice.

4: Taste to see if it needs salt — I added about half a teaspoon — and scatter over the coriander leaves. Serve the casserole with diced or sliced avocado and a squeeze of lime juice if you have it. You could also sprinkle over some chilli flakes or chilli sauce for added heat.

Serves 2 as a main, or 3-4 as a side dish with other things going on.

Notes:

• I have only tried this with brown basmati rice. Regular white rice will behave differently — if that’s all you have and you really want to make this, I’d recommend looking up oven cooking times/quantities for white rice and adjusting accordingly.
• Feel free to use other beans or chickpeas here instead of black beans.
• If you’re a coriander-hater then do what you’ve gotta do. Without it, I would definitely include that squeeze of lime juice (or even just lemon juice) to lift up the dish.

music lately:

Army of Me by Björk, its controlled menace makes my teeth feel sharper with every listen.

Could I Leave You from the musical Follies, performed here by Ariana DeBose. I went to the APO’s A Night of Sondheim concert this week and naturally immediately started crying from the opening notes; I was overjoyed that this, one of my most beloved Sondheim songs, was included. My favourite interpretation is Dee Hoty’s, and everyone knows the Donna Murphy gold standard, but I also love Ariana’s recent take with its deceptively light beginning, where every single word seems to have its own considered acting choice.

Sugar Kane by Sonic Youth. The immediacy! The way this song tramples over you and then comes back to dust you off before pushing you to the ground again!