BLACK BEANS WITH TOMATO, CHIVES & LEMON

Another natural cooking blog post, this time tackling how to cook beans from scratch. I experimented with black beans the other day, but the recipe below can be used for chickpeas, red kidney beans, pinto beans and the list goes on. I have tried to make the cooking explanation as simple as possible. Whilst I anticipate that some of the readers may glance at it and think no way do I have time to do that, I can personally attest that the difference in taste between cooked and tinned beans is incredible. You won't know how natural beans can taste until you cook them from scratch. If you decide to cook a large quantity of beans, you can freeze them in freezer bags for a later use.

INGREDIENTS

• 250g black beans (or any amount up to 450g)
• 2 tomatoes, sliced into thin wedges
• 2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped
• the juice of 1/4 of a fresh lemon  

COOKING 

1. Step 1 can be very simple - to buy tinned black beans in an organic store and rinse & drain them. I stress that you certainly do this, however for really delicious beans, you need to cook them from scratch. 

How to do this: Buy your beans at an organic store, between 250 to 450grams. Rinse thoroughly at home twice. If you have time to soak the beans, do so. You can either soak them overnight or for at least 4 hours during the day. Pour the hard beans into a large, heavy pot/saucepan and pour in enough water to cover the beans by around 5-7cm. Leave at room temperature. 

After soaking, drain the beans well. Pour fresh water into a medium to large saucepan and add the beans, making sure that the amount of fresh water is double or triple times the volume of beans. At this point, you can add in some chopped vegetables if you desire, such as onion, carrots, celery. (I opted for just red onion). Keep the saucepan at a simmer and cook the beans, uncovered, until tender. Depending on the size of your pan, the power of your stove and the freshness of your beans, the cooking time will vary from 35 minutes to over one hour. It took me approximately 40 minutes to cook 250g of black beans. Sample the beans often during the cooking process to check their tenderness. Make sure that you taste 4-5 beans if you believe the first taste was tender, as this may not be the case with the rest of the beans. Season with salt in the remaining 10-15 minutes of cooking, so when you start to notice the beans becoming a little tender. When tender, drain the beans well. 

2. Place the cooked beans in a serving bowl and add chopped tomatoes and chives. Drizzle fresh lemon juice on top and serve. 

250g serves 4 comfortably as a side 

450g serves 6- 8 as a side 

x E