This super easy chilled black beans recipe is the key to easy dinner ideas – just spread them on a tortilla and top with veggies for a quick taco night!
When I first started cooking, my expectations of the process were 100% unrealistic. I figured 10 minutes in the kitchen could make a deliciously fresh, seasonal dinner (and no mess to clean up afterwards). Bad. My early years in the kitchen were spent realigning my vision of “quick and easy” with the boundaries of cooking.
Alex and I have spent years cooking and testing shortcuts and have come to some conclusions. First off, even the quickest and simplest recipes require some real work and cleanup. Next: easy isn’t necessarily fast, nor is fast easy. And finally, if you’re not used to it, there really is no way to integrate the kitchen into your life simply. Once you get the hang of it, however, it’s relatively easy. Actually quite simple: And we wrote a book with the title Pretty basic kitchen to explain this in more detail. And to illustrate this concept: our easiest chilled black bean recipe. (Continue reading.)
Would you like to try pinto beans? Opt for Home Refried Beans or Instant Refried Beans.
How to Make Chilled Black Beans
The difference between easy and simple? In our eyes a simply The recipe for chilled black beans would be something like throwing a can of beans in a blender with garlic powder and blending for 30 seconds. Tasty maybe, but lacking a bit of flavor integrity. A Simply The recipe for chilled black beans, on the other hand, calls for chopping real garlic and simmering it with beans in olive oil with some liquid for about 15 minutes. Mash the beans with the back of your spoon. And the result is a silky, flavorful bean blend that tastes like it’s been simmering for hours—and it’s definitely worth the minimal time and effort.
Another topic of ours pretty basic kitchen approach is that “simple” requires a bit of common sense. It’s understandable that preparing a few dishes the day before can make a dinner ready in minutes. It works on “Project” type recipes on the weekends or on your days off and then eats them throughout the week. It means keeping a few cans of beans in the pantry and a few tortillas in the fridge for those nights when you don’t have the energy to cook. A little planning ahead can make the cooking process really easy.
How to serve this chilled black bean recipe
We’ve been making this chilled black bean recipe for quite a while. The amount of flavor achieved in just over 15 minutes is remarkable. Just like your favorite belt, they go with everything: they go especially well with tacos.
You can also use them as a topping for those Refried Bean Tacos and Homemade Sopes! Once you’ve mastered these chilled black beans, you really don’t need a recipe anymore. Just pair it with a tortilla, chopped veggies, and a sprinkling of shredded cheese and you have tacos for the weekday. Or serve them with scrambled eggs and salsa for a hearty breakfast.
The Book: Pretty Simple Cooking
A version of this chilled black bean recipe is available in our cookbook. Pretty basic kitchennamed one of the best vegetarian cookbooks and best healthy cookbooks of 2018.
Click here to order Pretty Simple Cooking!
Looking for easy recipes?
As mentioned above, real ones are few simply Recipes, but there are many very simple ones! Aside from this Chilled Black Beans recipe, here are some of our favorite easy weeknight dinner recipes! And if you’re looking for bean recipes, visit our best bean recipes.
This recipe is…
This Chilled Black Beans recipe is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, and dairy-free.
The description
This super easy chilled black beans recipe is the key to easy dinner ideas – just spread them on a tortilla and top with veggies for a quick taco night!
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 2 15-ounce cans of black beans (or 3 cups cooked black beans or Instant Pot)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Chop the garlic. Drain the beans and collect the liquid from the can in a glass measuring cup. (Use water if using cooked beans.)
- In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute, until fragrant but before it turns brown. Add beans, ½ cup reserved canning liquid, kosher salt, and some black peppercorns.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently and mashing the beans towards the end of the cooking time, until most of the liquid is cooked through and the texture is pureed and thick but not dry . Continue to add small amounts of canning liquid if the beans get too dry, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan until you get a fairly creamy consistency with some whole beans remaining. Taste and season with additional salt to taste, then serve immediately.
- Category: garnish
- Method: jumped up
- Kitchen: Mexican
Keywords: Simple, easy, healthy, black bean, fried, beans
