Spanish Rice

Yesterday on the Food Network, Giada Delaurentiis cooked up the most half-butt version of Spanish rice. It made me pretty mad. From what I can remember she just cooked up white rice in stock and added pancetta. There might have been an onion involved and I think she added a pinch of saffron for colour. Lame.

I quickly made something undeniably more delicious. It's this:

1. Soak 1/2 cup of any dry bean blend overnight. Discard water, rinse, and cook in boiling water until done (40 minutes). Luckily, I was already doing this because of meatless Monday.
2. Cook 3/4 cup dry brown rice in 1 1/2 cups water.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, cook 6 button mushrooms, sliced in a bit of oil. Add 1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped. Add the cooked rice and beans.
4. Once everything has browned up a little, turn off the heat. Add 1/2 cup medium salsa.

If you're vegan you can stop there, but I had a little "hot wing sauce" made up as an experiment and pouring it over the rice mixture was pretty heavenly. Try making some, and if you have enough, use it on some homemade wings. It's just equal parts melted butter and Frank's red hot sauce, with a small squirt of ketchup. Excellent.