Hello my kiddos!
Black beans are another food that was weirdly missing from my childhood. We ate a lot of red beans, white beans and split peas – but never black beans. I wonder why? Maybe because they are usually more often typically associated with Southwestern foods.
Now, if I had to pick a favorite bean they would be right up there tied with garbanzo beans. I love them! They have a rich, smokey taste that works really well with all kinds of dishes, not just Southwestern. Luckily, you both like them!
Maybe not so lucky for all of Joel’s three cute kids. When we married them, all of us got to experience tons of new foods and traditions. Which for the most part just added to the adventure of life… Except if you hate beans (and Hamburger Helper… ugh [note from Joel: hey! Do not taunt Hamburger Helper!])
Christine loves black beans more than anyone else in the family, so I think she makes up for the serious lack of love from Danielle and Alexander!
Enjoy!!
Mom (and Cyndi!)
New to using a pressure cooker? Using a different type of bean and want to check how long they take to cook in a pressure cooker? Check out this amazing website. I love it!
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 6 people | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 45 minutes | 30 minutes |
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Soft and creamy black beans with bacon, green peppers and onions. These are packed with tons of flavor. Great on their own or as a hearty side dish. Delicious!
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- 1 pound dry black beans rinsed and looked through for anything that should not be there.
- 2 whole bay leaves
- 8 cups water
- 1 tsp salt See recipe note on the myth of not salting uncooked beans.
- 1 whole onion cut in big chunks
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp oil This is important - it helps keep the "foam" that forms when cooking beans in a pressure cooker from clogging the steam valve
- 4 strips bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup green pepper about 1/4 of a large green bell pepper, diced small
- 1/4 cup celery 2 stalks, diced small
- 1/2 cup yellow onion half of a large onion, diced small
- 2 cloves garlic grated
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper or more if you like heat!
- 2 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
- 3/4 cup beef broth
- 1 pound cooked black beans Measured when the beans are dry.
- 2 stalks green onions for garnish
- 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- kosher salt taste and season
- Rinse and really go through all of your dry beans - you want to make sure that there are no small rocks or other things that might have slipped through.
- For every pound of dry beans you need 8 cups of water in your pressure cooker.
- Add the water and the beans to the pot. Add the salt, oil, bay leaf, onion and garlic.
- Put on and seal the lid. Turn heat up to medium high and wait for steam to start hissing through the top.
- Put on the regulator weight and reduce heat to medium. The weight should start making a steady ticking sound (about once per second or so) after a few minutes, as steam escapes. If it is really fast and a lot of steam is escaping, turn your heat down.
- Set the time for 22 minutes. Black beans need between 22 and 24 minutes to become very soft and tender. Different beans need different amounts of time.
- Once the timer has gone off, turn off the heat and wait for the pot to cool down (this is called "natural release"). It usually takes about 30 minutes to cool down enough to take the lid off.
- Prep all of your vegetables: green pepper, onion, garlic and celery.
- In a deep frying pan (I like to use cast iron) add a little vegetable oil. To the hot oil, add your bacon that you have cut into small pieces. Fry until bacon is crisp. Once bacon is crispy, remove and set aside to drain. Pour out all the oil except for about 1 tbsp.
- To the hot pan and the 1 tbsp of hot oil, add all of your vegetables except for your garlic. You want to soften the vegetables. Once the vegetables have softened add the garlic and stir for another 2 min.
- Add the tomato paste. Stir around.
- Add the soft black beans and the rest of the ingredients. Stir.
- Allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until most of the liquid has cooked down, stirring often.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
- Leftovers??? Throw them into the blender with a little water and a splash of cream and you have a really delicious creamy black bean soup.
To salt or not to salt? That is the question of the day!
It is actually better to add salt to the cooking liquid when using the pressure cooker or to the soaking liquid if using the stove top. You end up with a very tender skinned softer creamier bean.
Cook's Illustrated: Why does soaking dried beans in salted water make them cook up with softer skins? It has to do with how the sodium ions in salt interact with the cells of the bean skins. As the beans soak, the sodium ions replace some of the calcium and magnesium ions in the skins. Because sodium ions are weaker than mineral ions, they allow more water to penetrate into the skins, leading to a softer texture.
I Love black beans, especially with rice. They’re so good! Going to try your recipe of refried black beans. Thanks 🙂
Great! I hope you like them!
These look so good. I had never heard of Black Beans until about three years ago but I really like them. These recipes look so enticing they will be a good addition to any recipe file.