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Friday, November 18, 2011

Food Storage Friday: Garlic Black Beans

I'm fudging the rules of food storage Friday a bit to share this recipe with you, because it's a real winner. I think a lot of problem with storing beans is realizing you're going to have to eat them! A lot of bean recipes can be super bland, and you may have people in your family (kids, spouse) who don't like beans at all. It's important to eat the food storage before you NEED to eat the food storage so your family is used to it. Especially foods like beans and wheat. 

This recipe uses a "fresh" ingredient, garlic, and it is simple and delicious! I found the recipe/guidelines for this recipe from yet another healthy living blog, Fitnessista. I tell ya, they know how to make healthy good.

Ingredients:  dry black beans, oregano, cumin, head of garlic, lots of water!



First, rinse your beans. Rinse all the dust/dirt off and sift through for any rocks or nasty looking shriveled beans.

Then dump them in your slow cooker and cover them with water.

Add the cumin, oregano and the WHOLE HEAD OF GARLIC.

Note: I used two heads of garlic because they were itty bitty heads
That's right, you put the whole head of garlic in. I don't know if you need to, but I slice off the tiniest part of the top where the "stock" part is. Don't peel. Don't peel. Don't peel. Just dump.



Put a lid on your slow cooker and cook on high for four hours and on low for four hours.  It doesn't take nearly that long for the beans to be done, but the longer the beans are cooking, the better the garlicky flavor.

  
When you serve the beans, ladle them into a bowl and top with goodies like cheese, sour cream (or plain yogurt) avocado, tomato, chips.  Don't serve the garlic, you can fish that out and toss it when dinner's ready.
Or just plain old salsa!

This recipe is so good, that my "picky-eating age kids" will have 2-3 bowls of it for dinner.  The garlic flavor is amazing, and it's such a simple yet hearty meal.  If you have any leftover beans, you can just measure them into portions and freeze them to use in other recipes as needed. 

Even the baby approves!

Garlic Black Beans
Fitnessista

2 lb bag of dried black beans
head of garlic
1 Tbsp cumin 
1Tbsp dried oregano
salt to taste
water

Rinse your beans and add to slow cooker, cover with water. Add head of garlic, cumin and oregano. Cook on high for four hours and on low for four hours. Add water as necessary. Add salt to taste before serving.

Top with salsa, sour cream, avocado, cheese, tomatoes, and/or chips.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think black beans are a concern but it is good to be aware of this:

Raw kidney beans, and to a lesser extent some other beans (such as broad/fava beans), contain the toxin phytohaemagglutinin, which is destroyed by boiling for at least ten minutes, but not by the lower temperatures of a slow cooker, so dry beans must be boiled prior to slow cooking to avoid poisoning. Even a few beans can be toxic, and beans can be as much as five times more toxic if cooked at 80 °C (175 °F) than if eaten raw, so adequate pre-boiling is vital. Cases of poisoning by slow-cooked beans have been published in the UK; poisoning has occurred in the USA but has not been formally reported. This risk can be avoided entirely by using canned cooked beans, adding them towards the end of the recipe's cooking time.[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cooker

Mary said...

Is there no soaking in this recipe? I love your blog!

Abs said...

@ anonymous, that is interesting, I'd never heard of that. I know that when my slow cooker is on high, it is boiling and bubbling. So maybe be sure to cook your beans on high for at least a couple hours before switching to low.

@Mary, no soaking! Isn't that great!

Unknown said...

Growing up, I was always told the reason for soaking beans was so they'd cook faster, and might decrease how gassy they made us.

It wasn't until the internet days that I learned about beans' anti-nutrients, and how soaking drastically reduced the anti-nutrients (well except for soy beans, which require fermenting to reduce anti-nutrients).

There's many articles out there about why/how soaking reduces beans (and grains) anti-nutrients but this one is nicely presented: Hidden Dangers in Your Whole Grains, Beans, Nuts and Seeds