Homemade Black Beans

Simple, delicious black beans that anyone can make.

Black beans are a healthy alternative to pinto beans that offer a much richer flavor to any entree or side dish you use them in. Because you are making these from scratch, you can make as much as you want and freeze what you don’t use and using a crock pot gives you the “set -n- forget” method of cooking. Now you’ll have fresh, homemade black beans anytime you want.

Prep time: 10 – 15 mins
Cook time: 7-8 hours

Ingredient List:
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* 2 Cups dried, black beans
* 7 Cups water
* 1/2 cup large diced white / yellow onion
* 2-3 bay leaves
* 2 Tsp ground cumin
* 1 Tsp garlic powder
* 1 Tsp onion powder
* 1 3/4 Tsp salt
* a few grinds of fresh black pepper

Equipment:
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Crock pot

Instructions:
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1.) Plug in crock pot and set time to “high” setting, if you have a timer on your crock pot – set to 8 hrs.
2.) Give the beans a quick rinse to remove any bean dust, old crusty beans, and anything else you don’t want to ruin your amazing beans.
3.) Add the clean beans, water, diced onion and spices to the crock-pot
4.) Give the whole thing a quick stir with a spoon to help mix all the liquid and dried spices together.
5.) Cover the crock pot with a lid and leave them along. If you are nosy type, you can check on them in a few hours. You can give them a quick stir but don’t go overboard, the key is to let the beans sit and do their thing.
6.) After about 6 hours, turn the temp of the crock pot to “Low” setting. You should see that the beans are softer (cooked) and that liquid has mostly been absorbed or cooked off. If you find that the beans have cooked faster or seem “dry”, you can add another cup of water to finish off the cook time.

PRO- TIP: if you want to kick the flavor up a bit, substitute vegetable stock for the water, or do a 50/50 blend. You’ll be a star, trust me.

7.) Around 7-8 hours of cook time, the beans will be done. The liquid should be mostly cooked off but there should not be an excess of liquid. If so, not a big deal it just means you can trim the amount of what you use or add more beans the next time. Better to have more liquid then less… Now you are ready to plate the beans.

Plating / final steps / drink pairings:
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With the beans done cooking, you can use them as an ingredient in other recipes, they can be portioned off and frozen for later use, or you can dig in and eat some.

Suggested toppings:

* Fresh cracked black pepper
* Fresh cut up cilantro
* Fresh Cotija cheese – if you don’t have any, go get some. This is the secret sauce.

Drink paring:

Any Mexican beer will work, but if you want to try something different – Victoria beer is the way to go. Nice, full body and a richer flavor that will go nice with whatever main dish you have.