Black Beans & Rice
You can cheat a little on the recipe by purchasing prepared black beans in the can, or you can quick-soak the beans in a crock pot to reduce the over-night preparation time, but it still takes 5-hours on a high-heat setting.
1 lb. Dried Black Beans (3 cups); Picked Over and Rinsed
8 cups Water (4 for beans and 4 for rice)
1/2 cup dry white wine
6 Cloves Garlic; Crushed
2 Tbs. Dried Oregano
1 Bay Leaf
2 tsp. Olive Oil
1 Large Onion; Chopped
1 Red Bell Pepper; (I prefer Green Bells) Chopped
1 Tbs. Ground Cumin
1 Jalapeno Pepper; Seeded and Chopped
2 Tbs. Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp. Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to Taste
2 cups Long-Grain White Rice
1 Lime; Sliced into 8 Wedges
Soak beans in cold water overnight making sure all beans are covered by 2-inches of water.
Drain and rinse beans.
Place in a large soup pot or Dutch oven.
Add 4 cups of water, wine, garlic, oregano, and bay leaf.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. cover and simmer until beans are tender, approximately 2-hours.
Drain beans and return to the pot or Dutch oven.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add onion and pepper, cook, stirring occasionally until softened for about 5-minutes.
Add cumin and jalapeno, cook, stirring until softened for approximately 1-minute more.
Stir onion mixture and vinegar into beans.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring remaining 4 cups of water and 1 tsp. salt to a boil.
Add rice, cover and reduce heat to low. simmer until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, approximately 15 to 20-minutes.
Serve the beans over the rice with lime wedges on the side of the serving dish.
Additional cuban style topping (but not necessary to the recipe) Cube up, or chop, a white or yellow onion into a bowl, drizzle some oil and red wine vinegar over the onion bits, mix together... top the beans and rice.... Yum
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I am going to cook some chicken breasts tomorrow night and I think I will make the black beans and rice to go with it. Since the black beans are cooked separately, if hubby doesn’t want to try them he doesn’t have to eat them. I will fix some corn to go with it, so he can fill up on the rice and the corn, which is his favorite vegetable anyway.
Opps, I’m out of bell pepper and don’t have any jalepeno peppers, so I may have to wait until I go shopping on Monday, unless I can get hubby to stop at the grocery store tomorrow on our way home in the morning so I can make a quick trip in to the produce section.