Spanish Rice and Beans

"Spanish Rice and Beans" (page 272) is a savory combination of flavors and textures, with ingredients like capers and kalamata olives adding delightful pizzazz.  Other ingredients include onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomatoes, red pepper flakes, kidney beans, and parsley.  A far cry from the vision of white rice and tomato sauce usually conjured up when one thinks of Spanish rice, this dish really is the centerpiece of a meal.  The recipe instructions have you sautéing the veggies in oil (which I omitted, using broth instead), then adding the brown rice, tomatoes and broth, and cooking everything together until the rice is done.   I have never had any luck trying to cook brown rice in a pot with any other ingredients outside of just plain liquid.  It never seems to get done, and the rice ends up crunchy, no matter how long I cook it, or how much liquid I keep adding.  Knowing this ahead of time, I cooked the rice up first, and added it to the sautéed veggies, then added the rest of the ingredients as the recipe instructed, and at this point cooking only long enough to heat things through.  I also only used ½ the amount of rice called for; it appeared that using the full measure (1 ½ cups dry = 4 cups cooked) would have yielded too much cooked grain for the rest of the ingredients.  That was a good call on my part, as two cups of cooked rice seemed to provide the perfect ratio.