I hope is okay to post this question here.

Due to trying to life a simpler, more frugal life, the question arose ‘can you live from rice and beans alone?’

Of course, I already kind of guessed that it lacked some essential nutrients this way and the answer was probably ‘no’, but I was also lucky enough to find an article that talked about just that:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/05/03/151932410/man-cannot-live-on-rice-and-beans-alone-but-many-do

Now, in the article it says: *”But ‘you’re not going to have a complete diet,’ she says. The combo lacks Vitamin C and other essential nutrients. ‘It’s extremely important that you eat meat and vegetables,’ Campos says.”*

But that only lead me to the further question… how *can* one turn this into a meal that is nutritionally complete – and how the most minimalist way?

I should clarify that I don’t financially struggle nor do I prefer polished rice to begin with. So the counterpoints mentioned in the article do not apply here. I think of a decent ratio of beans to rice and of course the rice I use is brown rice.

Meat is not an option, obviously… but which vegetables or vegan anything can I add to turn this fully nutritional – and how can I keep it still as minimalist as possible (by which I mean, with the least amount of added ingredients)?

It’d be best(!) if I could just add something that can be dried for a long shelf life, because I like rice and beans for just the fact that I can have tons of them at home for years and not think about it much.
At least it should be meal-prep friendly a bit, as I prefer to cook in advance about once a week.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Dining and Cooking