Ok, I promise not to blog about black beans again so soon! But honestly, after blogging about Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos yesterday, I was craving good old fashioned REGULAR black beans.
I arrived at my parents' yesterday to stay and do some dog-sitting for them. This afternoon I found this can of beans in their stash. For spur of the moment black bean cravings, canned beans definitely work better than dry beans! Even though they don't keep onions on hand (my dad hates them), there were leeks and garlic, and that's all I needed to decide on my lunch menu. I chopped up two big garlic cloves and about 1/4 cup of leeks, and sauteed them in olive oil for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
While the aroma was wafting through the air, I thought about the title of this blog, Beans & Rice & Everything Nice, which I took from Bethany and David! I decided I'd like to have an additional component in with the beans and rice, you know, to make them extra nice! There were a few lonely mushrooms in the fridge, so I chopped them up, and added them to the frying pan. Then I dumped in the whole can of beans. Sometimes I rinse them off, to lower the sodium content, but I like the taste when the beans cook in their own sauce.
I immediately added about 1/4 cup of hot water and stirred it all up. I keep the burner up to high so that the water/sauce boils. I let this simmer for awhile, probably upwards of eight minutes, using a spatula to stir and scrape the bottom of the pan every once in awhile. Beans are technically soft enough to eat right out of the can. But I think these eight-ish minutes of boiling softens them up even more and allows the garlic and onion (or leek) flavor to really coalesce with the beans.
Even though I usually use onions, not leeks, the reeds of green really brighten up the dish!
While I got the beans going, I also cooked some rice. Cheater style. Instant brown rice, from a box. Took only 5 minutes of cooking and 5 minutes of steaming. A craving, a box, and a can. As easy as CBC.
So how do you know when the beans are done? Don't worry about timing eight minutes. Just stir and scrape every once in awhile, and when you notice the sauce starting to bubble down and stick and dry to the pan - they're done!
Scoop them out on top of some rice (or
Scrambed Tofu).
Mix it all together (if you so desire), and chow down!
Beans and rice are very nice.
But so is dessert in the middle of the afternoon!
Oh yeah, chocolate peanut butter soy ice cream with strawberries!
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