Beans and Rice Lesson

Today’s A Taste Of African Heritage plant based cooking class was on beans and rice. Students learned about the various types of rice—brown, wild, red, pink, black, etc.—and their origins from various parts of Africa. They also learned about how the rice that grew in America was originally brought to America by Africans who brought the rice and their knowledge of growing rice when they were enslaved. The Gulluh people of South Carolina were particularly known for growing rice.

We also talked about various types of beans. Do you know how many different varieties of beans there are in the world?…….13,000 (yes, thirteen thousand)! We were all surprised to learn this.

Finally we made two recipes using rice and beans including my easy rice pudding (using brown rice and coconut milk) from page 35 of my book. The students were pleasantly surprised that the pudding was only sweetened with fruit and that it was so tasty.

Looking forward to Lesson 6 next week—Tubers and Mashes!