Black Bean Recipes

Black beans and rice

Make some brown rice (I have an aluminum rice cooker: I wish there were an alternative to aluminum, but I love this gadget).

Ingredients

2 16 ounce cans black beans (Goya's good)

1 big or 2 medium yellow onions

tomatoes (2 big red ripe ones, or three store-bought orange ones :( or a 16 ounce can italian plum tomatoes)

1 large pepper (green is fine, red is better)

peanut oil

chopped garlic (you know how much you like bettter than I, 1 teaspoon is good, 2 is better ...)

peel onions and slice thin (chop or food process if you prefer)
brown onions in peanut oil
while onions are browning, wash tomatoes and pepper. remove seeds from pepper. chop both.
when onions are brown, put in peppers.
Are your tomatoes ripe and red? no - put them in now; yes - fry pepper and onions first
After 5 minutes or so, get beans out of the can and rinse thoroughly.
Put in garlic and tomatoes (if you haven't yet). fry for a minute, enough to mix it. put in black beans.

Now cookooks will tell you to make a mound of rice on a big plate and place the beans in the center of the mound. This is a workday dish for me, so my wife and I leave it separate: breakfast and lunch for two.

- Tim

Black Bean patties

The North American Indians made patties of black beans and cornmeal, cooking them over campfires. I've added brown rice to give them more substance, though the Native Americans on the plains would have used wild rice. For a main dish, you can make or buy a mushroom gravy to serve over the patties, serving with a green vegetable and salad. Uncooked patties can be wrapped in wax paper and frozen, then for a quick meal you can defrost and fry or grill. This is a nice way to use up leftover rice or beans, but you can also cook some for the occasion. For breakfast, you can serve with warm maple syrup.

2 cups cooked black beans

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup soymilk

1 tablespoon cumin

Cool the beans and rice, if you have just cooked them. Combine all the ingredients well. Add more cornmeal as needed to form a stiff dough. Form into patties. Add corn oil to a frying pan and fry, or grill over charcoal.

Cooking black beans:

Put 1 cup dry black beans in 3 cups water and store overnight (a quart canning jar works well for this). Bring to a boil in fresh water and simmer around 40 minutes.

Cooking brown rice:

Put 1 cup brown rice in 2 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until water is gone, about 35 minutes. Let sit with cover on an additional 10 minutes.

-Mary Howard

Quick Black Bean Salad

Total time: 15 minutes

2 16-ounce cans black beans

1 sweet yellow pepper, cored, seeded and diced

1 sweet red pepper, cored, seeded and diced

1/4 cup chopped red onion

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon ground cumin

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Turn the cans of beans upside down and open them from the bottom. This makes it easier to remove the beans. Dump the beans into a colander and rinse them with cold water. Drain them well and place them in a mixing bowl.
Fold in the yellow and red pepper and the onion.
Beat the vinegar and cumin together, then beat in the oil. Fold the dressing into the bean mixture and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the salad to a serving dish and cover. It can be kept at room temperature for many hours before serving or refrigerated. Remove it from refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving.

Yield: six servings.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 169 calories, 9 grams fat, 0 milligrams cholesterol, 422 milligrams sodium, 5 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrate.

This is very pretty served in cups made from Bibb lettuce leaves.

Black Bean Soup

Makes 8 to 9 Servings

This is a great Central and South American favorite that can be used as the base for many other recipes.

2 C dried black beans

1 med onion, finely diced, about 1 C

3 T butter or oil

1 small carrot, peeled and finely diced, about 1/2 C

1 celery stalk, finely diced, about 1/2 C

6 C broth

1 t thyme

1/4 C lemon juice

1/4 C dry sherry

Sour cream

Chopped fresh dill

THE NIGHT BEFORE, place beans in a bowl, cover with 3 inches of water and soak at least 8 hours or up to 10. Or, for a quick-cook method, place beans in hot water for 1 hour before continuing with the recipe. Combine onion and oil in a 2-quart pot over medium heat on top of the stove and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the carrot and celery and cook another 5 minutes. Add the drained beans, stock, thyme. Cover, increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Decrease heat to low and cook, covered, for 1 1/2 hours. Place beans and liquid in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Pour the puree back into the pot and add lemon juice and sherry. Place a dollop of sour cream in each soup bowl and sprinkle with some chopped fresh dill. Pour the piping hot soup at the table.

Another Black Bean Soup

1 lb (or so) black beans, soaked overnight and rinsed well

2 lg. onions, chopped

3 carrots, cut in halved slices

3 celery stalks, chopped

1-2 heaping tbsp chopped garlic

1-2 tsp cumin (seed or ground)

1 tsp ground coriander

salt to taste

cayenne pepper to taste

Simmer the black beans, garlic, and veggies in 2-3 quarts of water until reasonably tender. Add the spices to taste and simmer 10-15 minutes longer.

The veggies get a little dark-looking if added at the start, so alternatively you can simmer the black beans until tender, saute the chopped veggies in a little olive oil, and add them at the end with the spices.

Serve with cornbread or french bread. This soup freezes well, and is better the next day too.

Black Beans

1 lb. black beans

1 medium to large onion

1 medium green pepper

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp oregano

2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

2 bay leaves

12 green olives

Procedure to soften beans:

Look through beans and discard any rocks and ugly beans.
Using a pressure cooker (best method) - put the beans in the pot (spread them on the bottom) and add enough water to have 2 fingers of water over the beans. Add a big slice of the green pepper. Cover and cook for 20 minutes (this is 20 minutes after the pressure cap starts rocking)
Without pressure cooker - The night before, put beans in a pot and cover with water just as in the pressure cooker method. Let sit overnight. Add a big slice of green pepper and boil covered for about 2 hours until softened.

After beans are softened:

Sautee chopped onions, crushed garlic, chopped peppers in olive oil. Add the sauteed mixture, pepper, oregano, bay leaves and salt to beans.

Cover (if you're using pressure cooker don't cook in pressure, just cover the pot without tightening the cover like a normal pot) and boil at low to medium heat for 1/2 hour. Don't let it full boil, it has to be inbetween simmering and boiling.

Add the olives and cook for 15 to 30 minutes more uncovered, until it reaches the consistency you want. Some people like the water to thicken more than others, but keep in mind that it will always thicken more after cooked and settled.

A couple minutes before they are done, add sugar, vinegar and more salt if desired. Cook for a couple more minutes. You will have to taste for salt as you cook them, but for 1lb., 2 tsp should be enough.

If you want to double the recipe, you don't need to double the olive oil, just add enough to be able to sautee the ingredients. You also don't need to double the olives. You will probably need more than double the salt. And for each lb. of beans you need 2 fingers of water over the beans (so 4 fingers for 2 lbs.).