Best Ever Black Beans

Now I know this doesn't look like black beans, but trust me, it is. It's just the beginnings of black beans. If you look carefully, past the brilliant orange tomato (very good on BLT's too, BTW), the "red" onion (come on folks - it is really purple!), the red peppers, the garlic cloves, and the bay leaf, you can see the little beans swimming around in there. This picture was just to beautiful to not use it here!

So here's the dealio on this recipe: it makes a big old pot of beans. Enough for a couple of meals. I like to make a batch of beans this size and then freeze a bunch of them for later. That is, if I can get to them before Mr. Amazing Man and the boys gobble them all up! I have taken to making large batches of beans, flank steak strips, and homemade tortillas all on the same day and then freezing 2-3 meals worth of the stuff for later. Mess the pans up once, eat four different times! That's my kind of cooking.

Here's the recipe:

2 lbs. dried black beans, washed and soaked overnight

¼ cup olive oil

2 medium tomatoes - halved

1 green pepper - quartered

1 whole medium onion - quartered

1 whole garlic cloves

2 whole bay leaves

2 T. olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 whole medium green pepper - chopped

2 whole clove garlic - minced

2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. cumin

1/3 c. red wine vinegar

salt to taste (approx. 2 Tbs.)

Tabasco as needed to kick up the heat

Drain the beans and combine with ¼ c. olive oil, halved tomatoes, quartered pepper, quartered onion, whole garlic cloves, and bay leaves in pot. Cover with water to about 1” above beans. Simmer until beans are tender & then remove tomatoes, pepper, onion, garlic, and bay leaves and set aside.

In a sauté pan, heat olive oil. Toss in chopped onions. When translucent, add in chopped pepper & garlic. Sauté until tender then add in oregano, cumin, and salt. Add in red wine vinegar and mix well. When combined, stir into beans and add more vinegar, salt, or Tabasco as needed.

(Note: I used what I had on hand today - a red onion instead of white, orange tomatoes instead of red ones, and a red pepper instead of green. There was no culinary reason, it was just that I didn't have the other stuff. The beans turned out perfectly all the same.)