I love all beans, as your hubby seems to, but it makes me wonder why Hubby is so resistant to black beans. I make a three bean chili with pintos, gabonzas, and black beans using either ground beef or chicken for meat. (Oh I know, real Texas chile doesn’t have beans) That could be a start to get him eating black beans.
I love all kinds of beans too. You are right that chili is a good way to introduce him to black beans. I have never been able to get him to try black beans until last week when I made a huge batch of chili. I’m a Northern Gal and I grew up with chili being mostly beans and a little bit of meat, so that is how I make my chili as well.
I had used up all the chili beans I had made up (I have been soaking and pre cooking dry beans), but I felt like this particular batch of chili needed a few more beans in it so I asked him if he would still eat it if I added one can of black beans to it since I had a can of them in my pantry cupboard. He said he didn’t think one can would make much difference in my huge batch of chili, so I could go ahead.
We had big bowls of chili with home made cornbread one night for dinner last week, and chili dogs another night. My hubby liked the chili so much he actually had chili or chili dogs several times for lunch last week. I had filled three empty 48 ounce sour cream tubs with the leftover chili to put in the freezer, and he had me keep one of them out so he could have chili dogs for lunch last week. He had the whole 48 ounce tub gone in two days!
I really think his aversion to black beans is either all in his head or perhaps due to his mother cooking up some black beans that he didn’t like when he was growing up. He has told me that both kidney beans and black beans are too bitter for his taste, and are never soft enough for him, but I have never found either to be bitter at all, and the only reason I know of for beans not getting soft is when they are salted too soon or have acid like lemon juice or vinegar added too soon to the pot.
I don’t usually add any vinegar or lemon juice to my beans, and wait to salt them until the end, but my mother in law was always big on adding vinegar or lemon juice to her beans, and over salted just about everything. She used one cooking temperature too, HIGH!
When we first got married there were a whole lot of foods he wouldn’t eat. In fact it would have been a shorter list to just write down the few foods he would actually eat. I have introduced him to a slew of new foods in close to 20 years of marriage, but he still has a real aversion to some foods.
I am always looking for new chili recipes to try as everyone in the family except one daughter absolutely loves chili. She will eat it most of the time as long as there is lots of shredded cheddar cheese to put on top of it. If she really doesn’t feel like it she will fix herself something else or eat her hot dogs without the chili on them.
For quite a while now I have been making a big pot of chili about once a month, and freezing the leftovers, so it is easy to just pull out of the freezer when someone wants chili. My hubby’s favorite kind of bean is pinto beans, so your chili recipe sounds right up his alley, now that I have gotten him to eat some black beans in some chili already.
I will look forward to trying your chili recipe too! I’ll watch for the recipe!