Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Moros y Cristianos
Black beans and white rice cooked together in one pot with a cumin-scented sofrito until every grain turns dusky and savory, the everyday soul of the Cuban table.
Cuban · easy · serves 5
prep 15 min · cook 75 min
~477 cal · 16g protein · 98g carbs · 2g fat · 9g fiber · 3g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Moros y cristianos, "Moors and Christians", is the classic Cuban dish of black beans and white rice cooked together in a single pot. The name nods to medieval Spain, the dark beans standing for the Moors and the white rice for the Christians, a bit of old-world history absorbed seamlessly into the New World kitchen.
The secret is cooking the rice in the beans' own inky liquid over a sofrito of onion, green pepper, and garlic bloomed with cumin, oregano, and bay. As it steams the rice takes on the beans' color and earthy flavor, turning a soft dusky brown flecked with tender beans. A splash of vinegar at the end lifts the whole pot.
Where fancier eastern-Cuban tables build congri with pork and bacon, the everyday Havana version needs nothing but good olive oil, which keeps it a naturally vegan staple. It is served alongside almost everything, from ropa vieja to fried , but a bowl on its own is a humble, deeply satisfying meal.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 5
1.25 cups dried black beans
2 cups long-grain white rice
3 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1 green bell pepper, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp white vinegar
to taste salt and black pepper
Instructions
1
Rinse the beans and simmer them with a halved onion, a halved green pepper, and a bay leaf in plenty of water until tender but intact, about 60 minutes, then discard the aromatics.
2
Drain the beans, reserving the dark cooking liquid, and measure out about 3 cups of it for the rice, topping up with water if needed.
3
Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot and cook the diced onion and green pepper gently for 8 minutes until soft and glossy, not browned.
✎ Chef’s note
This sofrito is the flavor base. Take your time and let the vegetables soften fully before the spices go in, or the finished pot tastes flat.
4
Stir in the garlic, cumin, and oregano and cook for a minute until fragrant, then add the rinsed rice and stir to coat every grain.
5
Add the cooked beans, the reserved bean liquid, salt, and pepper, bring to a boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 20 minutes without lifting the lid.
6
Turn off the heat and let the pot rest, covered, for 10 minutes, then fork the vinegar through and fluff the rice gently before serving.
Havana criollo tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Havana. Cubans do not treat rice and beans as one dish. Moros y cristianos has black beans cooked together with the rice and belongs to the western end of the island, Havana included, while congri proper is made with red beans and is eastern. Mojo criollo is built on sour orange, garlic, oregano and cumin rather than lime.
🗺️
Cuba. Moros y cristianos means Moors and Christians, and the name describes the method: black beans cooked together with the rice so the grains take the colour. That is not the same plate as congri, which uses red beans, and neither is the same as serving beans over rice from a separate pot. Ropa vieja arrived by way of the Canary Islands, and the traditional mojo is sour orange rather than lime.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Cuba
Ropa ViejaBeef braised and shredded into a rich tomato-pepper sofrito, Cuba’s national dish, named "old clothes."
Tostada Cubana con Café con LecheButtered Cuban bread pressed flat and crisp, cut into batons for dunking into sweet, milky espresso, the quintessential Havana breakfast.
Cuban SandwichRoast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard pressed in Cuban bread until crisp and molten, the classic cubano.
Browse all Cuba recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Cuba meal
MojitoDrink
Pastelitos de GuayabaDessert
Arroz con Pollo a la CubanaDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Moros y Cristianos?
Black beans and white rice cooked together in one pot with a cumin-scented sofrito until every grain turns dusky and savory, the everyday soul of the Cuban table.
Where does Moros y Cristianos come from?
Moros y Cristianos is a Cuban dish from Havana, Cuba.
Can Moros y Cristianos be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Moros y Cristianos recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Moros y Cristianos safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Moros y Cristianos take to make?
About 90 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 5.
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