I present to you one of my favorite meals in the whole world. A hearty and rich latin-style black beans with rice. It is a true comfort food, rich in fiber and protein and is so flavorful. This recipe comes together in 20 minutes on the stovetop, so naturally it’s on weekly repeat for me!
I grew up partly in South Florida and went to college in Miami, so cuban food feels like home food for me. As a vegetarian, the cuban side dishes made a nourishing meal, rice beans plantains and some sort of salad or salsa. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
This dish can’t be called true Cuban style beans, because I did use some jalapeno, and cumin to spice it up, which are more Mexican flavors. But they make the dish versatile enough to enjoy in salads, tacos and more!
I served this rice and beans with a corn salsa that I just whipped together using some frozen corn, onion, tomato, jalapeno and lime. But you can feel free to use whichever salsa you prefer, like this Nectarine and Roasted Corn Salsa or this Strawberry Mango Salsa.
Sofrito
The key to this style of preparation is making a sofrito. You do this by sauteing onions garlic and tomatoes with jalapenos and spices until it forms almost a sauce. This will be the base for the dish and will flavor the beans. Feel free to use whichever diced tomatoes you prefer. I like Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes because they are rich and smoky, but fresh tomatoes or regular diced tomatoes work as well. This recipe only uses 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes, so you can reserve the rest for another recipe.
Dried vs. Canned Beans
This recipe uses canned beans. You can certainly sub cooked dried beans, but to save a step and make this a 20 minute meal, I used canned beans. For an instant pot recipe for black beans, click here.
Hearty Cuban-Style Black Beans (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 2 cans black beans drained and rinsed
- ½ cup fire roasted diced tomatoes can use regular diced tomatoes
- 1 cup bell pepper of choice I used a combination of green orange red and yellow
- 1 jalapeno diced
- 1 ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 3-4 cloves garlic diced finely
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 low sodium vegetable bullion cube
Instructions
- Heat 2-3 tbsp mild oil of choice in a pot and add cumin seeds.
- Once cumin seeds sputter add onions and stir. Add garlic and sauté until translucent
- Add jalapenos and fire roasted tomatoes and allow the tomatoes to reduce in the sofrito for 3-4 minutes, until much of the liquid evaporates and they begin to lose shape. Add 1 tsp salt.
- Add in the black beans and 1 bullion cube and 1 ½ cups of water.
- Bring to a boil and reduce to medium and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the beans thicken a bit. Cook for longer for extra rich and hearty beans.
- Squeeze ½ lime and adjust salt to taste.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice, salsa or avocado.
Notes
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