Last night was one of those desperation nights where I needed food fast and I was at the end of my last paycheck so didn’t have a lot of options. Whenever the week ends up like this, one of my cheapest go-to’s is a can of garbanzo beans and a bag of frozen broccoli from good ol’ Walmart.
A 20 lb. bag of Great Value Basmati rice is $17 at my local Walmart, which is a hell of a deal, and is the base of my diet.
So if you’re hungry tonight and you have some rice, some oil or butter, some spices, and around two to three dollars (I paid $2.08 before tax) for a can of beans and a bag broccoli, this is an easy, quick, and filling meal.
Easy Chickpea, Broccoli, and Rice One Pan Meal

This is a cheap, delicious, and easy meal to make when your emotional and financial bandwidth are short.
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz bag frozen broccoli
- 1 15.5 oz can garbonzo beans / chickpeas
- 1/2 cup rice
- 1 Tbs. oil or butter, whatever you have on hand
- 1 ⅓ cups water
- Salt and seasonings to taste. I used several pinches of salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and some sumac for some leomony flavor. Have fun with it!
Instructions
- Rinse your rice a few times until the water mostly runs clear.
- Drain your beans.
- Add your beans and rice to a nonstick skillet.
- Throw your bag of frozen broccoli in a non stick covered pan, but be careful to not mix it up too much, you want to keep the rice mostly at the bottom of the pan!
- Season with oil or butter and your seasonings of choice (I go heavy on the spices.)
- Add 1 and 1/3 cups of water.
- Heat on medium high until it just starts to come to a boil.
- Cover, reduce heat to a low simmer.
- Cook for 20 minutes. Fluff and enjoy!
Notes
If you have some chicken, or other meat, I would brown it at the start and then continue with the rest of the recipe— but this isn’t needed! The beans have plenty of protein to make it a complete meal without the meat. A little cheese or nutritional yeast sprinkled on top makes it even better. 🖖
Also, you could probably make this in a pot-- but I grew up using a rice cooker and for some reason have never been able to get the hang of making rice in a pot on the stove, one pot meal or otherwise!