Tag Archives: beans

Black Bean and Avocado Lime Quinoa

I love simplicity on a weeknight. And though the plethora of ingredients in this recipe may lead you to believe that it’s complicated, it’s not! You cook the quinoa and simply stir everything else in. I’ve made this many times, and the add-in ingredients are flexible and can be adjusted depending on the state of your pantry. So while it’s delicious just as written below, have fun playing and substituting!

This dish can function as a side, but I love it as a main dish. And my love will remain unshaken.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tsp kosher salt
2 TBS olive oil
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 small bunch cilantro
3-4 Roma tomatoes
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can corn
2 avocados
1 sprinkle lemon juice (for the avocado)
1 hard boiled egg
1 TBS melted butter
Optional: crumbled feta cheese

First: resist the urge to be overwhelmed. Yes, there appear to be a good many ingredients in that picture, but nothing complicated is happening with or to any of them. Take a deep breath and stick with me!

Now, quinoa. I used to be intimidated by it. It was an unknown, and it always takes a little extra energy to tackle something mysterious in the kitchen. Well let me assure you: this delicious little grain is nothing to be afraid of. Its tiny couscous-like pearls are simply cooked in boiling water, and then sit for 10 minutes to steam and soften. And that’s the extent of the Quinoa Threat.

Let’s see this funky lil’ grain in action!

Boil the 2 cups of water in a large pot. When boiling, adjust the heat to medium, add the quinoa . . .

. . . and cook (uncovered) for 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed. After 15 minutes, cover the pot and turn off the heat.

Let the quinoa sit for 10 minutes and get happy. See? Nothing to fear at all.

Hard boil that egg. After 7 minutes of boiling and a couple minutes sitting in the hot water, mine was perfection.

Dice up the tomatoes and cilantro:

Bam! Bam! Toss them in a bowl.

Peel and cube the avocado, sprinkling the pieces with a little lemon juice to avoid browning.

As you can see, I left a few of the prettier slices whole, to use as a garnish.

Drain and rinse the black beans:

And drain the can of corn while you’re at it.

Chop up the hardboiled egg too–and now all the chunky ingredients are ready to be added once the quinoa is done:

Beautiful! Colorful. Healthy.

Zest and juice the lime into a bowl:

Add the salt, sugar, and pepper . . .

. . . and whisk in the olive oil and butter to form the dressing.

As you can see, I couldn’t be bothered with melting the butter, knowing it would simply melt in the hot quinoa.

Once the quinoa is done, mix everything together in the pot:

This dish can be eaten hot or cold, but I like it at least warm, so if you do too, heat everything for a couple minutes over low heat.

Serve it up! You can sprinkle a little feta on top too, if you’re in the mood for some dairy bliss.

I, surprisingly, wasn’t. I also didn’t have any feta on hand, so maybe that was part of it.

It’s so good. I love, love, love this dinner–there’s no rolling away from the table with a rock in your stomach after a bowl of this veggie-licious combo. I hope you guys like it too!

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Frijoles Charros

This recipe is an old classic, taken from my teenage recipe collection. Behold the binder of my youth!

My sister Erica and I bought matching binders when I was about 16 years old, and faithfully copied in our favorite family recipes. However, in my enthusiasm for Tasty Kitchen, America’s Test Kitchen, and various and sundry food blogs, I haven’t accessed the lore in this little book for quite a while. I wonder what else is in here . . .

. . . oooh! Pork Shreds with Hoisin Sauce! I must mend the error of my ways and make some Mom classics.

As for these beans, I just love them.

When I was first drafting this post, I was under the impression that Mom learned how to make this dish when she studied abroad in Mexico during her college years. Thankfully, I took the time to check my sources, and it turns out that she learned it when we lived in Valencia from our neighbor Wendy, who in turn learned how to make it in Mexico. I think. Either way, for me it brings back so many comforting childhood memories. Thanks for so many years of quality food, Mom. You fed us well!

Ingredients

(Serves 6-8)

2 1/2 – 3 cups brown, black, red or pinto beans
1 onion
1-28 oz can diced tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
1 lb bacon
1 bunch cilantro
2 jalapeño chilies
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cover the beans with water and soak them overnight.

That picture kind of looks like a cloud of darkness, but I promise–there are beans in there.

The next day, when you’ve rolled up your sleeves and you’re ready to cook, rinse and wash the beans under running water.

Yep, that stream of water is looking quite weak. In fact, in about an hour our water was about to be turned off for the rest of the night. Why the City of Chicago waited until 5pm on Monday to start working on a leak that had reduced our water to a thin trickle 3 days prior is a mystery to me–all I can say is that we fell asleep to the tune of drillhammers tearing up the street at 11pm. Thankfully the project manager warned me that our water was about to be off just as I turned into our apartment complex, which enabled us to stockpile the H2O like aquabandits:

But back to the beans! Once they’re nice and clean, return them to the pot . . .

. . . and cover them with water (about 1 inch above the beans). If perchance you forget to soak the beans, just increase the cooking time by about 1 1/2 hours.

Let’s gather the remaining ingredients to our collective bosom:

Add the can of tomatoes to the pot:

Mince the garlic and toss it into the pot–or you can squeeze it straight in with a garlic press. I think I’ll call mine a ‘garlique press.’ It makes me feel more French.

Chop the onion finely (okay, my chop was quite rough) and toss that in the pot too:

Mince up the jalapeño chilies:

You can remove the seeds to suit your preferred level of spiciness–I cut out the seeds from one and left them in the other.

Toss ’em in the pot!

Are you sensing a pattern here? A ‘tossing in the pot’ pattern? In fact, it’s beyond me why this recipe isn’t just called ‘Toss ‘Em in the Pot Beans.’

Roughly chop the cilantro . . .

. . . and you guessed it. The thing with the pot again. But only toss in half of the cilantro, because the other half is going to be a garnish!

This is my bowl of reserved cilantro–it will add a note of brightness to what could otherwise be a very brown dish.

Dice the bacon . . .

. . . and fry it until crisp.

Nope, still too floppy.

Zer ve go, fraülein! This blog brings out the weird accents in me–it just can’t be helped.

Reserve a small amount of bacon for a crispy garnish . . .

. . . and then add the rest to the pot as well.

As you can see in the above picture, I didn’t wait until the bacon was done to start cooking the beans. Basically, as soon as the beans are rinsed and covered in water again, I turn the heat on medium high and bring the beans to a boil. Then I add ingredients as they become available. This saves time, which is key since this dish has a looooong cooking time. Once the beans are boiling, lower the heat, cover the pot, and cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours (until the beans are very tender), stirring occasionally.

The colors were very bright to begin with, but as it cooks all the ingredients will start to Become One. Unfortunately, the bacon will also become floppy again–there’s no way around it. That’s why setting some crispy pieces aside is so key.

See? Uglier, but so much more delicious!

During this time, add generous amounts of salt and pepper:

Check the pot periodically and add water as needed so that the beans stay covered. During the last half an hour of cooking, remove the cover so that the excess water evaporates:

As soon as you’ve tasted it, the beans are soft enough, and the seasoning is to your satisfaction, serve over rice!

Don’t forget to sprinkle that extra bacon and cilantro over top.

This always hits the spot.

I love this dish like it was my own child.

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