(upbeat music) And welcome to Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

And today, we're taking a shelfie.

That's right, shelfie.

We're going to highlight things you probably already have on your shelf.

Meaning, well, I won't tell you.

Tell them Chef Robert.

We're going to make some red beans and rice.

But I just have to say I love the term shelfie.

Did you make that up all by yourself?

Right just then, Alyssa, how about that?

You can use it at UAMS in your fabulous nutrition classes.

Red beans and rice is going to start with red beans and rice.

Surprise.

Go figure.

It's it's an almost one pot dish that we're going to cook in two pots okay.

We're going to cook the rice and the beans separate.

We'll start with the rice.

We're going to bring the water already to a boil.

We're going to use two parts liquid to one part grain.

Wow.

So I say liquid because it doesn't have to be water.

You could use stock.

I would stop there.

Water or stock.

Don't do this with milk.

You're getting agreement here from the nutritionist and that's a good sign.

I have learned my lesson that if you're using something like stock or broth, you can add a ton of flavor to your rice.

We need to cover the rice.

There's a mistake that a lot of people make.

They cook the rice uncovered.

Too much water evaporates too quickly, and you get undercooked rice.

Number two mistake that a lot of people make with rice is checking it all the time.

And I have to stir it and I have to stir it.

You release starch, which now is going to make the rice gummy.

We're not making a rice pudding right now, so we don't want soft.

We want it to be almost like that pasta that is al dente, to the tooth.

A little bit firm, but not crunchy anymore.

Okay.

This is going to take about, small pan.

This is only going to take about ten minutes.

And if we leave it alone, here's another trick.

As this goes, eventually we're going to see a little steam pop out come out of the lid there.

When that slows down, turn it off.

Leave the lid on until the beans are ready.

It'll be nice.

It'll be perfect.

Perfect rice.

Alyssa, Robert hits a word that I would love to hear you address from the nutrition angle.

Starch.

This is a starchy meal.

Red beans and rice.

Yes.

So we are introducing a lot of carbohydrates.

We're getting our complex carbohydrates from the beans.

We're also adding that starch with the rice.

So it is a carb heavy meal.

That doesn't seem to bother you at all.

It's not a bad thing.

Our body really likes to use carbohydrates for energy, and we're not eating the whole pot in one sitting.

This is definitely a sharable meal.

It also makes great leftovers so we can work on that portion control.

Get enough to leave us satisfied.

Leave us feeling full.

Save the rest for later.

So I'm cutting my onion, the onion we're going to need for the beans.

We don't see this much on this show.

I'm using a wood cutting board.

Yeah, you know, wood boards, plastic boards.

Never put meat on a wooden board.

It's a commandment, ladies and gentlemen.

Okay.

It's an ATK commandment.

Well, there's some meat cooties that that we leave on the board that you just can't wash away.

That's what the plastic boards are for.

Wood boards.

Great for produce.

Okay.

I've got a pan that's starting to heat up.

Going to add some oil and we're going to add our onion.

I used about a quarter of this medium size yellow onion.

Now your hand is going to smell like an onion for a week.

Well I've been doing this for a long time.

And my dear wife has been very patient about my hand smelling like onions and garlic for, we've been married 33 years.

I've been cooking 35 years, so all she knows is onion and garlic.

Well, those are aromatics.

And celery.

It's amazing.

And bell pepper.

Look, here we go.

Look.

Our veggies are going in with our beans.

Is that important?

That is important.

So we we are getting a lot of nutrients from this meal.

Our dietician should really, so we banter a lot off camera about I'm a meat-atarian, and traditional red beans and rice, New Orleans red beans and rice is going to be full of sausage, and there might be a bean or two.

We can get some of that flavor and make this entirely vegan.

Smoked paprika instead of sausage.

We'll have a sausage flavor without the sausage, right?

You get that smokiness from the smoked paprika, but we aren't adding any type of animal product to the dish.

We're adding a little hot sauce.

The hot sauce is going to add a little bit of salt, just a bit okay.

Some really fun flavor too.

All right.

You can make it hot to taste.

We've got some herb.

Where does the variety come in for this?

This what I can I think I'm answering my own question, but you you've got I'm seeing a variety.

But what different type types of things can you use?

Absolutely.

Like Chef Robert said, we are lowering our saturated fat.

We're lowering our sodium intake by using smoked paprika instead of pork.

You have white rice cooking right now.

You could use brown rice.

You could use another type of whole grain like quinoa or barley.

You could still use the same traditional flavors, but you can increase the health benefits of the meal just by making a couple swaps.

Hadn't been too long since you've started that.

We're going to add the beans here.

Yeah, we just want to, when things get aromatic, okay.

She uses the term aromatics.

They're vegetables that we start cooking that is going to give us, you know when you start smelling not individual vegetables.

That's another way of using the term aromatic.

They've all blended together.

Now we can add other stuff.

You can follow a recipe that says cook this for five minutes.

Cook this for seven minutes.

But you learn to cook instinctively when things like this, when all this smells together, it's all married now I can build add the rest of the product.

So we're adding beans.

And if people follow our goal that you state on every one of these shows, adding a day or one meal a week.

One meal a week, cooked from scratch at home, using these methods more than you already do, we are all one step closer to adding a few more days, right?

Longevity.

Being a little healthier.

If you want to live your healthiest, longest life.

We're getting our vegetable stock.

Is keeping this vegan.

Wow.

I saw it all out here in front of me.

Didn't even think vegan.

And now you've got, you've changed the whole tone of it.

Couple of bay leaves, a magical herb.

This is, adds a lot of flavor, but it needs to cook in slow for for quite a while.

This is not for a quick cook thing, so we're not going to be done with this in two minutes.

We're going to be done with this in about 20 minutes.

And let this add a little bit of delicious flavor.

Alyssa, somebody thinking vegan might think, oh, I don't want to eat vegan.

And this is looking and smelling terrific.

I agree.

Vegan is a personal choice for a lot of people.

It's something that you can play around with too.

Man, this smelling terrific.

Now, this is only one half of the show today.

We've got something else to prepare.

Let's give a little preview, Alyssa, of what we're going to prepare to go with this part of the meal today.

We are continuing with the Healthy Pantry Staples.

We're riding the bean train today and we're going to make fudgy black bean brownies.

I thought you were going to say that.

And now everybody watching is going, oh, I got to see this.

We're making black bean fudgie brownies.

Okay, what a show.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back for this.

(upbeat music) The foods you eat can be made up of three main nutrients.

And your body needs all of them.

And not just for energy in the form of calories.

Macronutrients include carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Carbohydrates provide energy and can come from foods like grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Protein foods like chicken, beef, and even beans build and repair tissue.

Fats, both animal based like butter or plant based like olive oil.

Support hormones, brain health and nutrient absorption.

Aim to include all three at most meals.

This helps with energy, fullness and balanced nutrition without overthinking it.

Oh, you're watching a special show.

A special version of Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

We got the blender out.

Alyssa, what are you going to make with a blender?

I am making fudgy black bean brownies with you guys today.

Brownies.

That's the magic word.

Right, fudgy.

This is almost a challenge.

But before we get there, how are we doing on the on the red beans and rice?

If, if if a dish could be perfect.

I think we're almost there.

Wow.

Needs to cook a little bit longer.

Probably just the amount of time we need to make these brownies and get them in the oven.

And we're going to be perfect.

We make these in my teaching kitchen at UAMS all the time, and they are a surprise favorite.

So do you like chocolate?

Yes.

Do you like chocolate?

Do you see me?

This is body by chocolate.

I know how you guys feel about black beans.

So we'll get there.

We'll get there.

To start this recipe, first I need to make my own oat flour, which is much less intimidating than it sounds.

Right?

So I'm going to add my whole grain oats.

And these are all common ingredients that are very easily available and affordable.

Absolutely.

Does it matter if it's quick oats or old fashioned oats?

I do have quick oats in this recipe, so quick oats cook faster there.

Why?

Quick oats have already been just buzzed gently in a in a blender.

You can make your own quick oats from whole rolled oats or old fashioned oats, and then just buzz it in the blender.

It cuts some just a little bit finer, a little bit.

That is a great tip.

Then that means you can use that container of oats many different ways.

Many ways.

So we're just going to pulse these until they turn into the flour.

(blender sounds) You're basically chopping it.

Right.

We don't have to get super fine here.

We do want a little bit of texture, but we're just breaking up those quick oats.

Just a few more pulses.

So a blender becomes a chopper.

(blender whirring) You already have a hearing aid.

I'm going to need one after this episode.

Just a couple.

Did you say something?

What?

You're in there.

All right, we're going to take this off.

Pour it into my small bowl.

We don't have to get too many things messy with this recipe.

We're reusing this blender again.

Lock it into place.

There's lots of safety features on a blender.

Why would we want to go to all this trouble?

We can just open up a little package that could just stick in the oven.

Why would we do that nutritionally?

Why would we want to do that?

We are all about healthy foods that taste good.

So we do want to get some health benefits from our dessert.

So we're going to mix together some of these wholesome ingredients.

Is this guilt free dessert, do you think?

There's, you know, I don't really think there's a place for guilt in food.

We shouldn't tie that emotion to it.

Yay!

Food brings us a lot of comfort, and food brings us a lot of enjoyment.

I wouldn't expect the nutritionist to say that.

We want to be practical and food is meant to be enjoyed.

So from time to time it is totally okay to have your chocolate.

It's totally okay to have something that's a little bit salty, a little bit sweet, especially if you combine it with a powerhouse like black beans.

So we have.

This is the this is the ingredient I got to see work to be convinced.

So this is the one that's the iffy.

All right.

Let's start with our black beans.

We're using canned black beans because remember they're already cooked before they go into the can.

So they're going to be softer.

But they're rinsed, right?

They are rinsed.

Most of the salt that's in that liquid the juice is gone.

It's gone.

Going to have a little bit of flavor from that.

Now we're adding this melted semi-sweet chocolate.

Who gets to lick the bowl?

You or me?

I'll let you two fight about that later.

Rock paper scissors.

All right.

So semi-sweet chocolate here is a little bit sweet, a little bit bitter.

It's around 70% dark chocolate?

Actually.

No.

Then yeah.

Let's talk about chocolate.

Semi-sweet is about 35% chocolate.

And then the other is sugar and milk.

Milk chocolate is almost no chocolate.

It's all milk and sugar with a little bit of chocolate.

If you by name brand dark chocolate from the grocery store that's usually about 40% dark chocolate.

Okay, 40% chocolate.

But they give you the percentages on the package.

Now, if you get brands that have the percentages on the package 60%, that means 60% chocolate, cacao, the actual chocolate bean.

That's when, Alyssa and I have a lot of some sarcastic banter with me and chocolate.

I argue all the time that chocolate already is a bean.

It comes from a bean, a pod on a tree.

You pop that open and it's chocolate beans.

There's my bean.

No, no, that's not true.

But if you go 60% or higher now, you get into very, very healthy chocolate.

Really?

At 70% cacao if you're not used to it, it's a little bit bitter.

Yeah.

But as you chew it and right as you swallow a little waxy, it's fruity.

The sugar is not there.

You're actually tasting the the cocoa bean, which has a fruity, slightly nutty.

70%, you have the same antioxidant.

There you go.

As blueberries.

Ding ding ding.

That's today's word, antioxidant.

So if you're pro oxidant, you're going to eat just the regular name brand chocolate bar that you get right by the checkout stand.

Why do we want antioxidant?

Antioxidants support cell health.

So we want to eat antioxidants to improve our cell health and they're immune system boosters.

So they're definitely part of a healthy diet.

So this is going to help.

This is going to help.

Okay.

Who knew that chocolate could be so complex?

Exactly.

We have vanilla extract here that's going to add some flavor.

We're getting some sweetness from maple syrup.

So if you want to know the cost, we always show the cost of all the things that we prepare at the end of the show.

Just throwing that in it in the blender.

Right.

Everything is going into the blender.

We have unsweetened cocoa powder.

Oh, everything's fluffy today.

I'm going to use canola oil to really bind those ingredients together.

Then we're baking, so we need a little bit of baking powder and then just a touch of salt.

All of this is going to get mixed together.

I would encourage people that are going to make this recipe or any baking at home.

Check the best buy dates of your baking powder and baking soda.

Those are pantry ingredients that usually stay in the pantry, sometimes for a long, long time.

You know, my wife and I have been married 33 years, and I think somewhere in the back of a cabinet, somewhere is baking powder we inherited from the wedding reception.

You know, I'm joking a little bit, but when you go past those dates, they still work, but they don't work very well.

You want something that's pretty fresh to get the fluff that you want in a cake or.

Sorry, I just added a little tip.

I think that's an excellent point, because you only use a little bit at a time when you're using those products.

So it's important to make sure that you don't have something that's 30 years old.

Right.

We're going to blend this together.

(blender whirring) Okay.

So I hope you got that.

I took notes.

(laughter) All right lid is off.

We're going to safely remove that blade.

We're gonna pour our mixture.

Thank you.

Who knew this was this messy?

Okay.

Thank you.

Unlock.

I'm going to pour.

I'm going to unplug this and just move this out of the way.

I got my rubber spatula.

I'm gonna get that chocolate black bean maple syrup mixture out, and we're going to fold in our oats.

So pouring the oats on top.

Then I'm going to lift from the bottom and fold my chocolate mixture over.

So we're not really doing too much stirring here.

We just want to incorporate those oats and that chocolate black bean mixture.

Fold fold fold there.

For those of you watching, this is a real role reversal.

Normally Alyssa and I are watching Robert do things like this.

Today, Robert's being made to watch Alyssa.

And I don't know about you Craig, but I am salivating.

Well, this is looking good.

I'm the guy that wants you to prove this to me.

And I must admit, this is looking pretty good.

Yeah, it smells amazing.

Get that kind of comforting chocolate smell.

Are you ready for this?

I am.

Okay, so to keep things as clean as possible, since we've made a little bit of a mess, I'm just going to use my scoop.

I'm going to add it to the center, because I don't think I'm going to make 12 of these.

So I'm filling up a scoop of my mixture, putting it in my muffin tin.

Now, I went ahead and sprayed this down with some cooking spray, so my fudgy black bean brownies are not going to stick.

You can see a lot of texture in here that is going to be great for our fiber content.

So we definitely have some health benefits.

You've got fiber.

You've got antioxidants.

What's not to like?

I think you'll need to let me know that when it comes time to taste.

All right.

Here we go.

We're ready for the oven.

We are going to pop these in a 350 degree oven.

And they'll be ready in about 8 to 10 minutes.

I'm getting started on this.

Are you eating out of the bowl?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Who needs a dishwasher?

But will we be able to resist the brownies?

That's the big question.

Any predictions?

I think you started licking that chocolate so a kitchen match instead of a cage match.

We're off.

When we come back and we'll see how we did.

Stay right here.

(upbeat music) There's something wrong with this plate.

I know what it is.

Nothing's on it.

It's time to serve it up.

Let's go.

That sounded like, man, let's just get on.

Get busy.

I'll tell you the truth.

Do it now.

I'm looking forward to the red beans and rice, but I'm really looking forward to the black bean brownie to see how that turns out.

Okay, I'm excited.

Because life is uncertain, I think we should eat dessert first.

But we'll put this together.

So our rice is finished.

And if we've really done that magical leave the lid on.

Don't play with it.

And you've left it on for a while.

Yes.

Now look at how fluffy that is.

And it's not all sticky and gummy and messy.

And so we'll stir it up just a little bit.

This is why you were hired.

We're going to take the lid off the beans.

Okay.

Watch out for the bay leaves.

You don't want to eat the bay leaves.

Okay, okay.

I've already taken the bay leaves out.

It's probably a good step.

And I'm just, even with the juice that's there, a lot of that's cooked down.

I'm mixing the whole thing together.

You know, I will confess, I took a whiff of the red beans and it smelled like you had sausage in it, but it didn't.

It's the magic of the smoked paprika.

That combines with the garlic and onion to be just, just right.

Brilliant.

Did you come up with that?

I actually didn't.

But.

Lots of practice.

So this version is going to be really closer to any of the Caribbean islands, because we're keeping that sauce from the beans.

They call it pot liquor.

Oh, and they'll cook the rice in all of that juice.

We don't want that much salt.

Right.

So what's left in here we're mixing all together, and now we're ready to eat.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

I'm ready.

Let me grab.

We need to get dessert.

You're ready for it now.

So Alyssa goes to get the black bean brownies.

I should get the first serving of the black beans and rice.

Now, These are.

These are red beans.

Red beans.

I'm sorry.

But we're using dark red.

Okay.

That's fine.

That's a that's a pretty healthy portion right there.

This pan is hot, so be careful.

It's the rice I'm interested in tasting.

Right.

Now okay.

Again, our gauge of whether or not this works is yummy.

If it's four yummies, or Beethoven's yum yum yum yum.

Thank you.

Ma'am.

It's hard to believe there's not sausage in there.

Y'all.

Mmm mm.

Okay, I've had mine.

Now let's get dessert.

Ow.

That's hot.

Well, it has been in the oven here.

Yeah.

I know, I just now realized that.

That is so good.

Very satisfying.

Now the brownie.

It looks like a brownie, but.

Smells like a brownie.

But it's black bean.

Should we feel nutritionally superior to most people because we've enjoyed these brownies?

Well, you just have a secret now.

Tastes like a brownie.

Tastes like a brownie.

Does it give you your chocolate fix?

Okay.

You feel the oats.

So very delicious.

And I don't want to say energy bar ish but.

Oh that doesn't have a little.

Little energy bar.

You would not know that this is made, the base of this is black beans.

Know this at all.

You know I've been looking for marketing possibilities with Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

I think we may have found it.

I don't have anything else to say.

It's nice and soft in the middle.

And I don't either.

I'm out of things to say and I'm dying to eat it, but I don't want to eat in front of y'all.

But I do.

Would would love it if you would try this.

Sorry, chef's are rude.

Thanks for watching Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

Now, if you'll stand by, we're going to savor our black bean brownies.

I never would have thought that you would say that.

Man.

Join us next time.

Additional funding provided by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.