Recipes for Black Beans - Mexican Avacado Salad

Recipes for Black Beans – Mexican Avacado Salad

For some reason I only discovered the beauty of black beans in the last year or so. I don’t know why I’d never had them before, but now that I know what a nutritional powerhouse they are I incorporate them into my meals as often as possible! Now I find myself constantly searching for recipes for black beans and looking for ways to add them to my favorite foods.

Canned beans are fine, but you can soak dry beans overnight and cook them as well.

Preparing Black Beans

Overnight Method

Sort through the dry beans to remove any debris or odd beans. Rinse and drain.

Put the beans in a large bowl (at least twice twice the size of the beans as they expand). Cover the beans with at least 3″ of water and let them soak overnight then cook them as directed below.

Quick Method

Sort and rinse the black beans and place them in a large pot with at least 3″ of water. Put the pot on the stove on high. Bring it to a boil and then immediately reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.  Do not cover the beans – you want the steam to be released. Turn off the heat and leave the beans undisturbed in the pot for about 60 minutes.

Cooking

The next day or once the 60 minutes is up for the quick method, drain and rinse and refill the pot with clean water – cover the beans with at least 2″ of water. On high heat, bring the beans to a boil and then lower the heat to medium to keep the beans almost at the boiling stage, but not actively boiling. Keep it there for up to two hours or until the beans are tender. How long the beans take depends on how old they are and the amount of humidity in your air. Testing them is the only way to be sure they’re done (pull out a few, run them under cool water, then taste them. They should be tender.

Drain the beans (rinse if the recipe calls for it) and then use them in your recipe

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Quick and Easy Black Bean Salad
Ingredients
  • 2 cups canned black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 avocados, diced
  • 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 1 bunch of scallions, chopped
  • 2 Tbls chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 medium red onion, diced
  • 5 oz prepared Italian salad dressing
  • Tortilla chips
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, place black beans, avocados, tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, red onion and toss with Italian dressing.
  2. Serve with Tortilla chips on the side.
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Photo Credit: Bill Milne Photography

Recipe provided by Maria Zoitas, creator of  the“Maria’s Homemade” line of prepared food which is sold exclusively at Westside Market NYC