Beans 101 – How to make a delicious pot of beans from scratch

Making a delicious pot of beans from scratch is so easy, and so much tastier than eating canned beans. Beans are an amazing source of plant protein, yet many people find making them from scratch to be too time-consuming or daunting. None of that… let me show you how easy it is.

Watch the Video Tutorial on Youtube

Knowing how to make an everyday pot of beans is knowledge that all Latin Americans acquire by watching our mothers and abuelitas do it on a daily basis…our entire lives. The secret to making a good pot of beans is in the seasonings. If you boil beans in salt water, I can guarantee you will be disappointed with the outcome. But create the perfect broth and you will produce a bowl of nothing but love and comfort.

Onions and garlic are fundamental when trying to create flavour out of nothing… so go crazy with these two ingredients. I give you a guide for how much to use in the recipe below, but by no means do you have to follow it. Follow your heart instead. Then, you will need herbs. My go-to when it comes to any Mexican recipe is Epazote and Cilantro. However, Epazote is impossible to find in most places around the world, so I find that oregano is a decent substitute. If not, cilantro alone will do the job on its own… but use a lot. Finally, you will need a tasty stock. Whichever stock you favour, whether it is vegetable, chicken or beef, it will do.

My favourite stock is this Better than Bullion vegan stock, they have many flavours, all vegan, and I love to mix and match depending on the recipe.

Check out some of my favourite pantry staples and kitchen tools on my Amazon store

Many people make beans with just water. So if you are out of resources, water will do the job. (not as flavorful of course)

Now, the toppings. I am all about toppings in every meal. Stick to your Mexican basics, cream, pickled onions, lemon and more chile.

Whenever I make beans I make sure to make a lot and freeze half. It is such a good thing to have ready to grab when your fridge is starting to empty!

I hope you will give it a go, and let me know how it turns out!

buen provecho,

Cookie

Beans 101 - How to make a delicious pot of beans

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Prep Time 15 hours hrs

Cook Time 1 hour hr 1 minute min

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Mexican

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 400 g brown beans you can also use black beans
• 1 large onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp red or black peppercorns I enjoy them whole. If you find pepper too strong, omit this ingredient altogether.
• 1 tbsp epazote or 2 tsp of dry oregano
• 1 big bunch cilantro
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 L stock

Instructions

 

• Sort though your dry beans to make sure there are no small rocks amongst the beans. Do thins when cooking any kind of dry legume, you do not want to take a bite and break your tooth with a lost pebble.
• Soak your beans at least 2hour, preferably over night.
• Finely chop your onion & garlic, sauté with some olive oil
• When your onion is translucent, add your beans and your stock. Dont worry too much about exact measurements when it comes to the liquid. We are making soupy beans, so adding a lot of water will simply turn out in jucier beans. Make sure there is almost twice as much liquid as there are beans.
• Add your herbs and spices: pepper, epazote, cilantro, bay leaf.
• Optional: throw in a dry chili pepper if you have one around for a bit more flavour.
• When everything is starting to warm up, taste the broth and make sure it has enough flavour. Add salt if needed.
• Let the beans simmer at medium heat for 1 hour, checking on them every 10 minutes. If you notice too much water evaporating, add more stock. If after one hour the beans are not soft, leave for 30 more minutes, or until they are completely tender.

Meat option

• For meat eaters, chop up some chorizo style sausage into coin shape or cubes. Cook them on a pan on the side. Once they are crispy, throw them into the pot of beans and let it simmer another 20 minutes.

Toppings

• Serve warm as a side dish, or over white rice.
• Top them off with some sour cream or greek yogur, pickled onions and your favorite salsa.

Keyword Beans, Mexican food

You may also be interested in this: Vegan Chilli Sin Carne

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