pleased with tonight's black beans

[redbird]

The rice and beans came out well tonight--I think I have the spicing right:

What felt like a lot of powdered ginger and roasted powdered garlic (Penzey's), maybe half a teaspoon of cumin, 1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika, a bit more oregano than usual. I put them in after cooking the onion and pepper, mixed and cooked for a minute, then added the beans, water, and vinegar, and some black pepper. I haven't been putting pepper in during the cooking, even though the spice mix Goya recommends is largely white and black pepper, if I recall correction.

[This is based on a recipe I found on the Goya can: theirs calls for twice as water as I'm using, and is cooked in olive oil. Tonight's was instead cooked in bacon fat: fry bacon, remove the bacon and let it drain into a paper towel, then use [part of] the bacon fat to cook the onion and pepper.

OK:
1 can Goya black beans [seriously, there are a lot of inferior brands of canned beans out there]
1 middle-sized onion, diced (about a cup)
about 1/2 bell pepper, diced (also about a cup; tonight I used frozen mixed (red, yellow, green) bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced (or toasted dried garlic, or the like)
spice mix: mine always includes ginger, usually cumin, and the rest varies depending on my mood, and some oregano.
olive oil or bacon
1-2 tablespoons cider vinegar
about 1/2 cup of water

Mix up some spices and oregano (I rarely use other herbs). Whatever comes to hand. Ginger because it's me, often cumin, I want to try powdered horseradish some time. Or use the Goya adobo without annatto, and some oregano

Cook the vegetables in the olive oil; if you use bacon, remove when from the pan, leaving about 2 tablespoons of the fat. (Being cautious, I poured the extra into a small bowl in case I had drained too much.)
When the vegetables are tender, add the beans, spices, water, and vinegar, cover, and simmer 10-20 minutes
Serve over rice (whatever rice you like--I usually use white basmati)

Made with olive oil (the original recipe) this is vegan and gluten-free.

Comments

[otter]

That sounds like something Tiger (middle offspring) would definitely eat, and perhaps cook on his own.

Sadly, Mouse will not eat onions, and I'm allergic to peppers.

In that case

[redbird]

If you have a microwave, you can mix the spices and vinegar into the beans, heat them in the microwave, and serve it over rice.

Mixing in some frozen butternut or acorn squash tastes good and makes the dish a bit lighter, by adding a little space between the beans. Corn also works well for that, if you all like cooked corn. The peppers do that in the recipe above; onion by itself not so much.

I sometimes make this without the peppers when I'm with adrian_turtle, because she's not always in the mood for them (or if she doesn't have them around). Smoked paprika is in the pepper family, of course, but I don't use that very often.

Re: In that case

[otter]

Thank you for the suggestions :)

[halojedha]

I love rice and beans! I usually put thyme and a bit of allspice in mine. I also like to cook the beans in with the rice, and add a can of coconut milk to the cooking water to make it creamy.