Sigh, Sunday already. And a bittersweet one for me since I know next week will be even crazier at work training a new employee and being on call. But with 4 loads of laundry done and me typing with hair dye in my hair to touch up the roots, I’m feeling ready for the week’s chaos. At least it won’t be raining sideways and I can straighten my hair if I feel like it. :-)
My mom and I went to one of my favorite Asian buffets for lunch today where I had the greenest plate of them all I think.
But the visit was a let down compared to previous times, the food did not seem as fresh, the edamame was stale, they were running low on seaweed salad (gasp!) and I skipped the vegan sushi this time because they were contaminated with fish eggs from tongs shared with non-vegan sushi, ick! So, I don’t think we’ll be going back, time to discover a new place. I’m bummed because when this place opened, it was awesome. The food was fresh and everything seemed new and well maintained. Plus I take a sick pleasure in checking out what crazy combos everyone else is loading up their plates with.
While I was gone, hubby took on another huge kitchen project – cleaning and re-organizing our pantry. Look at all the space we have in it now!
I’m thrilled because we used to have a huge toaster oven taking up space in it that we never used, but felt obligated to keep it being a house warming gift from a friend years ago. But I finally get to donate it and free up a lot of space.
While he was cleaning and sorting, he had all the counter space taken up leaving little room for me to prepare dinner. Hey, I won’t complain about that! And no problem anyway, I just broke out the slow cooker to finish cooking some black beans I’d been soaking for days with some Whole Foods organic brown rice.
Since I haven’t been having much luck with dried black beans lately having them still come out crunchy no matter how long I soak and cook them, I put this mixture on high for about 4 hours.
Then chopped and sauteed garlic, red bell pepper and onion to add into the slow cooker with some cumin, salt, and fresh minced cilantro.
I served the beans and rice topped with avocado slices and raw hemp seed sour cream I whipped up in the Vita-Mix.
It was good and I have leftovers for the next week I think! But would you believe the black beans were still crunchy after 4 days of soaking in the fridge and cooking on high for 4 hours? I’ve decided I got a bad batch of them because the problems are all coming from the same bag. Is that possible? I’ve cooked them way over the recommended times for dried, maybe this batch is really old. I’ll be picking up a fresh batch on my next Whole Foods trip.
Have you worked with dried black beans? What cooking method has worked well?
ugg, i never have good luck with black beans. i should try the slow cooker for mine the next time i want to try…but for now i’ll stick to chickpeas!
Oh good, I’m not the only one. :-) I might have to break down and buy them canned, but I’ll try another batch of dried first.
I’ve got a bag of dried chickpeas in my cupboard that I’m too afraid to use, I only ever use canned beans. I love how easy they are!
I’ve had good luck with chickpeas just soaking them overnight and boiling for about 30 minutes, much easier and faster than this batch of black beans. Dried chickpeas are also fun to sprout for salads and sprouted hummus.
I never make my own beans b/c for 99 cents a can, it’s just easier to know they will be right. homemade taste better, yes, but i just dont have the energy to deal with them and bean horror stories and cooking woes scare me off.
restaurants going downhill after they’ve been open a while..that sucks but unfort is all too common. sigh. :(
So far I’ve only had bad luck with this batch of black beans, other dried beans have been easier to work with and I’m a huge fan of sprouting dried lentils and chickpeas now. True, cans are easier, but dried is cheaper and better health-wise. One of these days I’ll get a pressure cooker to try with dried beans for faster cooking.
I make homecooked beans all the time i never have problems. I soak overnight with filtered water and a couple strips of kombu seawead.( kombu helps aid the digestion so ive heard seems good to me) around noonish i will rinse the beans saute some onion in oil in a heavy pot then add beans and enough water to cover by about a inch bring to a boil and then put the flame on low cover and let simmer anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 hours. black beans and garbonzos usually need more time then pinto ect….. good luck, cooking your own beans from scratch is so satifiying oh yeah one tip is do not salt the beans until tender doing so will often result in a tougher bean… when they are done i put aside what i want to eat now and cool and store in mason jars in the freezer
Interesting, I must have a bad batch of black beans then, I’ve had great luck cooking dried garbanzos beans using the same method. Thanks for the tips!
oh yeah cook the kombu with the beans, i forgot to mention that
Wow, your crockpot creation came out great! I soak black beans for at least 12 hours and then prepare them in a pressure cooker with no problem.
Thanks! One of these days I’ll get a pressure cooker, but the slow cooker should have cooked the beans enough after soaking for 4 days.
Boo…I hate it when places that were once great go downhill!!
ahhh that is awful!!!! I wonder why they are still crunchy? They are the beans that never quit! haha