Noodles & Rice · Latin American & Caribbean

Black Beans & Rice

Name: Black Beans & Rice
Total time: 150 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 1 ½ cup beans (black, dried, soaked overnight); 2 cup rice (long grain, white, rinsed); 9 cup water (for the beans, plus 3 cups for the rice); 1 unit onion (finely diced); 1 unit pepper (bell, green, finely diced); 5 clove garlic (minced); 3 tbsp olive oil; 1 ½ tsp cumin (ground); 1 tsp oregano (dried); 2 unit bay leaf; 2 ½ tsp salt; 1 tbsp vinegar (white or red wine, at the end)

12 ingredients · 150 minutes · 6 servings

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470kcal15.9g protein7.9g fat83.8g carbs~$0.66/ serving*

Vegetarian · without oneVegan · without onePescatarian · without oneNo pork · without oneNo alcohol

Ingredients

Servings:

1 ½ cup	beans (black, dried, soaked overnight)
2 cup	rice (long grain, white, rinsed)
9 cup	water (for the beans, plus 3 cups for the rice)
1 unit	onion (finely diced)
1 unit	pepper (bell, green, finely diced)
5 clove	garlic (minced)
3 tbsp	olive oil
1 ½ tsp	cumin (ground)
1 tsp	oregano (dried)
2 unit	bay leaf
2 ½ tsp	salt
1 tbsp	vinegar (white or red wine, at the end)
1 unit	ham hock (smoked, simmered with the beans)optional
⅓ cup	cilantro (chopped, to finish)optional
1 unit	lime (wedges, to serve)optional
½ tsp	black pepper (ground)optional
½ tsp	sugar (a pinch, if the beans are sharp)optional

Method

simmer75 min
soaked beans, 6 cups water, bay leaves; barely bubbling, lid ajar, UNSALTED
beans + water + bay leaves (+ ham hock) simmered gently until the skins are tender and a bean crushes easily against the roof of the mouth. Top up with hot water so they stay just covered. Hold the salt back until they are soft: salt slows the softening of the skins, so a pot salted from the start stays firm at the surface long after the interiors have gone floury. Never let it boil — agitation breaks the skins and clouds the liquor you are going to use as sauce
sweat12 min
olive oil, medium-low, onion and pepper until completely soft with no colour
olive oil + onion + pepper cooked slowly until soft and translucent, then + garlic + cumin + oregano for a further minute. Twelve minutes is not padding — an undercooked sofrito leaves a raw vegetal edge that two hours of simmering never covers. Spices go in last and into the fat, because their aromatics are oil-soluble and released by heat rather than by liquid
stew35 min
sofrito stirred into the tender beans, salt added now, uncovered, low
+ sofrito + 2 tsp of the salt stirred into the beans and simmered uncovered until the liquor thickens enough to coat a spoon. Adding the sofrito now rather than at the start keeps its sweetness — cooked for the full ninety minutes it goes flat and muddy. Uncovered so the liquid reduces into a sauce; a pot of beans swimming in thin water tastes of nothing however well it was seasoned
boil3 min
separate pan: rinsed rice, 3 cups water, remaining salt, brought to a hard boil
rice + water + remaining salt in a separate pan, brought up uncovered. Rinsing the rice first removes loose surface starch that would otherwise gelatinise between the grains and glue them together — which matters more here than usual, because the rice is a bed and the beans are the sauce
simmer15 min
lowest heat, tightly covered, not stirred or opened
until the water is gone and small craters pit the surface. Do not stir and do not lift the lid: stirring drags starch off the grains, and every peek loses the steam that is cooking the top layer
rest8 min
rice off the heat and still covered; beans off the heat too
both pots left alone. In the rice, moisture is still redistributing from the wet base to the drier grains above, which is the difference between two textures in one pot and one even one. The beans thicken further as they cool slightly
fold2 min
fork through the rice; vinegar into the beans; bay leaves removed
the rice separated with a fork — which lifts where a spoon compresses — and + vinegar stirred into the beans (+ cilantro, + pepper, + a pinch of sugar if they taste sharp). Serve the beans over the rice rather than mixed through, which is what keeps this the five-source version rather than the one-pot one. Taste for salt last: the bean liquor concentrated as it reduced and so did its seasoning (+ lime)