Some side dishes are more complicated than others. One of the reasons I love to make Mexican food when I am entertaining a group of friends, is because in general it is rustic, flavorful, and insanely easy to make. Once you have a roster of some basics, the rest of the recipes and methods all fall into place.
There’s two ways to make beans: the easy way, and then the slightly less easy way. Today, we are going to do some doctoring. Nobody will believe you didn’t make them all from scratch! These are great as a side dish, a burrito filling, a taco or tostada ingredient, great with eggs, even as a warm dip for chips.
Beans, beans, the magical fruit!
TOOT!
First things first, we’re going to gather our ingredients. These aren’t too tough: a 20 ounce can of black or pinto beans (or enough cans to be 20-24 ounces), a jalapeño or a fresh sweet green pepper, a couple cloves of garlic, half a medium onion and if you like cilantro, about half a bunch of cilantro.
Now, come in close, here’s the secret. Get your hands on some GOYA SAZON seasoning packets. If you can’t find them, another great option that you may be able to find in the spice section or at a Latin American grocery, is bean seasoning. If you can’t find any of those, in a pinch you can use taco seasoning.
These seasoning blends have yummy things like garlic, onion, cumin, coriander, culantro, and anatto seeds (that’s what makes things red) for great Mexican flavors. Taco seasoning can be up to half salt, so if you’re using that, cut back on any other salt that might appear in this process.
Open the can of beans and pour it in a pot. Put a splash of water in the bottom of the can and swirl it around and add that to the pot, to get all that good bean stuff out of the can.
Cut up the pepper (use half of a sweet bell pepper if you can’t handle spice) into about half inch pieces, and do the same with the onion. Rough chop the cilantro if you’re using cilantro. Chop the garlic cloves finely. Split all of those veggies in half — we will add half now, and half later.
Add half of the veggies to the pot with either two packs of Sazon seasoning or 1 tablespoon of bean seasoning. If you’re using taco seasoning, start with a half tablespoon because we can always add more, but we can’t take it out.
Stir the pot and mix the beans with the seasonings, and put the pot over low heat. Cook the beans for 45-60 minutes on low, ideally at a simmer. Taste. If you’re using taco seasoning and think the beans could use some salt, use the other half tablespoon of taco seasoning. If you’re using Sazon or bean seasoning, add some salt to taste if you think they could use it. At this point, turn off the heat and add the rest of the chopped veggies.
Stir the pot (!) and then just let them be. You can do this ahead of time and then reheat them when it’s time to eat. They’re best served in a little bowl and eaten with a spoon, because they will sort of run over the plate. Charro beans are made to be sort of stew-like, with the tender beans swimming in the seasoned sauce.
Delicious, very low fat, and vegetarian!
Let’s eat beans with every meal!
