To be honest, writing a cooking blog in the time of a global pandemic, when supermarket shelves may or may not have what you need, feels a little weird. It seems appropriate, then, that my first recipe post will be for rice and beans.
This recipe involves the following prep work: rinsing beans, dicing an onion and jalapenos, and mincing garlic. To save time, I buy peeled garlic from our Asian grocery store, so I can get straight to mincing. You can seed the jalapenos (or not) to your desired heat level.
Once you’ve completed the prep steps, toss everything in the slow cooker, EXCEPT the salt and lime juice, stir, and set to cook on high for 6 hours. It’s important to hold off on adding the salt, because salt can inhibit the beans from softening properly.
Cooking time may vary, but for me, 6 hours on high worked well. Test the beans to see if they are cooked. If the skins peel back, they are done. You should also taste them to see if they’re soft enough for your liking. If not, cook for another hour on high.
Add the salt, stir, and either cook for another half hour if you think the beans need it, or just turn off the heat and let them rest for half an hour.
Once finished, strain and divide into portions. Squeeze lime juice over top and serve.
Back when I used to go to the office, I would use this as a meal prep recipe: divide into 5 servings over rice.
Slow Cooker Cuban Black Beans
Equipment
- Slow Cooker (6 qt)
Ingredients
- 16 oz dry black beans drained and rinsed
- 2 jalapenos diced and seeded to desired heat level
- 1 onion diced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 14.5 oz petite diced tomatoes 1 can, no salt added
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 cups vegetable broth low sodium
- 3 cups water
- 2 Tbsp lime juice ~1 lime's worth
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except salt and lime juice to the cooker and stir.
- Cook for 6 hours on high, or until beans are cooked. Test by seeing if you can peel back the skins and taste for firmness.
- Stir in salt and cook for 30 more minutes, or let rest with heat off for 30 minutes.
- Remove bay leaves and strain.
- Squeeze lime juice on top for serving.
Notes
This recipe was inspired by the following:
- The Easy Heart Healthy Cookbook for Slow Cookers, Nicole Morrissey (Bookshop)
- The Full Helping
- Cafe Johnsonia
This recipe is so healthy, but so tasty. It has a lot of flavor, takes little effort, and I feel healthy too. A lot of crock pot recipes online call for everything canned and filled with sodium you start to feel preserved yourself. Not this one! I can control how much sodium I put in here and it tastes gooood! I’m recommending you to all of my friends.