Rarely do I follow a recipe this perfectly, but I was bound and determined to get this one right.
I think I spent about an hour and a half (of my free time, not my work time!) choosing the best black bean recipe I could find. Usually I’d just go with one of the fall-backs – rice and beans, black bean soup, or refried beans – but those are a little boring. I figure there’s nothing wrong with a little black bean pizzazz. And that means some kind of bright flavour – generally acid. A tablespoon of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon or lime if I’m feeling particularly Caribbean. But when I found this recipe with orange juice, rice wine vinegar, lime, AND chipotle powder pepper (which I had coincidentally just bought on a whim in Toronto at St. Lawrence Market awhile back), I was sold. That would be pizzazz-y enough. That’s a word. Spell-check agrees with me. You should too.
Here’s the original recipe. Since I followed it exactly I don’t even need to hold your hand through it. I’ll let Simply Recipes have that sensual honour. It is itself adapted from the Fields of Greens cookbook, which is still a relevant guide to vegetarian cooking published by a long-standing San Fransisco restaurant. You could probably also make this recipe with pinto beans, or black-eyed peas, or whole adzuki beans, or kidney beans. They all cook for a little more or less time depending on how old they are, but they’ll all work just fine in the end. The colour of the thick black beans, though, is my favourite, especially if you garnish with orange and lime wedges.
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