Now, I’m not saying that I’m looking forward to the apocalypse, but when I pull three pantry basics out to make up this healthy meal, I will be smiling….every single time. I thought I would share this simple concept of a meal, as it has given me so much joy and health over the years. I consider it a go-to comfort food, and it is so easy to make.
The story goes back to hard times, and this shows me that even difficult periods in my life have had gifts to offer me. I always do my best to focus on the glass being not just half full, but overflowing. I consider this part of my daily practice of resiliency, which adds quality to my life, as well as preparing me for whatever might come my way…..but I digress! Let’s get back to my favorite pantry meal!
The Origin Story
It was a difficult time for me. I had lost my job on the farm suddenly. I was at a local food bank and was offered a package…it was a brown paper bag with a rolled up top and what looked like a letter stapled on the front. “Would you like a Meal to Go?” the lady asked. “Sure!” I answered, not sure what that meant. When I got it home, I carefully tore off the letter and opened it up. There were three items inside. A small baggie of rice, a small jar of salsa and a can of black beans.
The instructions were simple: cook up the cup of rice and then add the black beans and salsa and warm to serve. I was skeptical, after all, isn’t salsa for dipping tortilla chips in? However, I didn’t have other plans for supper, so I reluctantly made the thing up.
To my utter and total surprise, I absolutely loved it! I couldn’t believe how tasty something so simple could be. As I wasn’t too enthusiastic about cooking at that time, I was amazed. To me, it was absolutely gourmet. I’ll now cover what I think the benefits of this simple meal are for preppers like us.
Long Shelf Life
Properly stored, rice can last for years. White rice is one of the best foods for long term storage. According to Valley Food Storage, “The combination of cold temperatures (sub 40F) and oxygen absorbers in airtight containers is the most effective way to get your rice to last upwards of 30 years and still retain its nutritional value and flavor.”
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Shelf stable salsa bought from the store will last at least a year or two. As we preppers know, it doesn’t become poisonous at the best before date,so you can eat it after that. However, its quality will deteriorate over time. You can open it and be the judge for yourself! [LINK: ]
When it comes to the black beans, the longevity is really up to you. Canned will last you a good three to five years. [ Simply store your dried black beans in an airtight container and you can get two to three years out of them. [LINK: ] If you have dried black beans that are stored in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, you can be looking at decades, rather than years!
So, I guess, looking at these three items, salsa is the weak link. For those who have invested in a freeze dryer, I was thinking that this would be the way to extend the life of the salsa part of this recipe. In fact, I found online a great recipe here for freeze-dried salsa that you can mix up from various freeze-dried ingredients after the fact to make salsa that is “just add water.” And here is a recipe where you collect the ingredients with the intention to make your own freeze-dried salsa By using the freeze dryer, you can take the couple years that the jar of salsa would last in your pantry and turn that into 10 – 25 years. All of a sudden, you have three equally matched ingredients lasting for decades to make my favorite pantry comfort food. Hurray!
Variations
Now, since I found out about this recipe, I have really reduced the amount of carbs I eat every day. This has been part of viewing my long-term weight loss plan as part of my preparedness. You can learn more about this in my recent article here.
So, a very important variation that I now eat regularly is to make this recipe with high-protein quinoa, rather than rice. I am not a dietician, but I think this would make the recipe more suitable for diabetics, too. To add more flavor to the quinoa, I dry toast it in a cast-iron pan. This gives it a delightful nutty flavor. You can learn more about this here.
Can you tell that I eat this pantry survival food all the time? Yes, I do! Another variation that I make is to throw a few onions in my cast iron pan and sauté them until soft. I also throw in some garlic. As the quinoa is cooking or standing to get fluffy, I also throw the black beans and salsa into the cast-iron pan so that they are hot, too. At the last moment, I also throw in some finely chopped greens (kale, spinach, swiss chard) and just let that wilt in the pan. Then, I scrape the entire contents of the cast-iron frying pan into the pot that I cooked the quinoa in and stir to mix.
You can also vary what this dish tastes like by changing up the salsa (of course, this variation is better suited to non-SHTF times). My favorite salsa for this meal is a local no-name brand with corn in it. Deeee-lish!
How Much Does it Make?
From one mixing of the three ingredients (one cup of grain (rice or quinoa)) and one small jar of salsa and one large can of black beans, I get five meals of around two cups. This is a good-sized bowl. As I aim for a smaller supper, this is perfect.
It is so great to do this kind of easy cooking and get five meals!
Delicious Shelf Stable Pantry Cooking
Using up your food stores needn’t be a chore. I absolutely LOVE my Salsa Sur-Thrival recipe! Having tasty recipes for pantry basics can be a strength of your preparedness. Could you see yourself trying the recipe offered here? Do you have your own fave pantry recipe you can share with us? Please tell us in the comments below.
About Rowan
Rowan O’Malley is a fourth-generation Irish American who loves all things green: plants (especially shamrocks), trees, herbs, and weeds! She challenges herself daily to live her best life and to be as fit, healthy, and prepared as possible.
9 Responses
Thanks Rowan for the interesting and yummy sounding recipe! I might add a can of corn to that to make a complete protein.
I really like the “Shore Lunch” brand Wild Rice soup. This is something that I look forward to eating, but it keeps for years. It is around $4.00 a pouch at Menards. You can add canned chicken or not, and it makes 2 qts. They have a potato soup, but it is REALLY salty, so you need to add more potatoes to it to absorb it. Flavor is really good, but the salt content is too high. They have a bunch of other flavors, and another brand at Menards that is a little less expensive. I haven’t made any of it, but I think it is equally good.
I also discovered that with an instant pot, you can cook almost 10 lbs. of boneless chicken breast. Season with 1 packet of Taco Seasoning, and then pressure can the results with some chicken broth. This goes in EVERYTHING! If you add mayo to a drained can, you get a really good chicken salad. Keep the drained juice and use as broth for a pot of soup. I did this during Covid while working from home. Went to Sam’s Club and bought my 10 lb. bag for $18.99, then went to Costco and saw the same thing for ~$40.00. I went back to Sam’s and bought 5 more bags of boneless/skinless chicken and got to work! Time to do that again, as my freezer just died.
I watched a vid of a woman who puts a whole frozen turkey (giblets and all) in a double canner (Tall pressure canner) adds seasoning and water and cooks it from frozen. Then she picks the meat off the bones and cans the meat. What a great idea for those after thanksgiving sales where they sell them for pennies a pound! I have a turkey thawing in the barely working freezer now, and might have to do that if it is still good. I have been canning butter for a week (I had a lot more than I thought LOL…) and might switch it up tonight…
lol yes canned chicken and turkey are great. I’ve canned just seasoned meat or made a thick stew with lots of added vegetables. My 20 something grandson will eat a quart of turkey and veggies soup by himself. He’s 6’3” and still unfillable. lol a quart of soup and half a loaf of sourdough bread is a meal.
That sounds really good. Something similar that I really like is taking a can of for example warmed up Bushes beans and putting that over rice, the savory sauce it’s canned in gives it a really good flavor.
Rowan, I love that recipe idea! I’ll try it tomorrow and thanks!
I love a good salsa over beans and rice, over a baked potato, over most anything made with ground beef, over a medium fried egg,
I guess that list could be endless.
I make tomato powder from dried tomatoes, onion powder from dried onions, dried chilis of any kind depending on how hot I’m in the mood for. I crumble cilantro leaves but powder the dry stems, same with dry parsley, celery powder from diced celery, different citrus powders from dried peeling, and more.
When I want a salsa or a thick soup I just mix the desired flavors in warm water, add salt or other seasonings. It’s quick, easy, and keeps for as long as I wish by sealing in jars, sealing in Mylar with oxygen absorbers, or just filling shaker spice jars. I also dry and keep some things in tiny dice. I even dry and powder onion or tomato skins when I’m cooking or canning and have skins left to do something with. Even fruit skins are dried and powdered. My green onions, chives, and green herbs are leaves stripped off of stems or sliced in thin slices and dried for either seasonings or as toppings.
I like the powdered dried herb stems mixed to cook with of make my-own buttermilk salad dressing or a vinegar and oil and herb dressing. The mixed herbs are also great on croutons or a bread dressing.
Our breakfast today was bacon, waffles with blue berries from the front yard, medium fried eggs fresh from our hens, with a teaspoon of salsa on each soft egg sitting on a waffle square with a few diced chives sprinkled over. By winter the salsa and chives would be all dehydrated ingredients. My waffles are made with homemade Greek yogurt. We’re older, so bacon is thin, very crisp, just eaten for a bit of flavor occasionally. Bacon grease is saved to season milk gravy with. 1 teaspoon will make 3 cups of gravy quite tasty. I eat little fat but it is a good seasoning now and then. I like milk poached eggs. I have crisp crumbled bacon – 1/4 cups in Mylar 1 cup bags cut in half and sealed. Greek yogurt and crumbled bacon is wonderful on a baked potato.
Sometimes I cook the rice a bit too wet and just add tomato and other powders to make a Spanish rice.
Have to agree a good salsa is wonderful over any cooked dry beans.
The wonderful thing about this article is that we can all come up with other ideas for similar meals! Think what a gift you gave us! Thank you.
I love salsa. I buy it on sale and throw it into plain foods. Makes them pop. Rice and beans, tacos, chicken… It’s a good prep to have on hand. Love black beans, too. I’m making crockpot black bean and pumpkin soup for next week.
Try it with avocado & Queso Fresco. It’s awesome!
I love this idea and would love to see more similar if anyone has any. I routinely keep some extra salsa in my pantry but will make a point to think of it more as a prep too and am adding it to my grocery list right now! It’s also pretty easy to make salsa from other canned goods so, while that isn’t as easy as 3 ingredients, it may have a better shelf life. The idea of dehydrating salsa is interesting too.