Black Beans For a Crowd

Roast chicken seems to be the go-to thing to make for a slow, homey dinner with your favorite people. Among omnivores anyway. As a non-meat eater, my version of that is a thick, dark, bubbling pot of black beans.

It’s the opposite of fancy. It’s definitely not trying to impress. It’s verrrry low-effort-for-maximum-goodness. And unlike the chicken, it’s dirt cheap.

You could eat your bowl of beans — with a hunk of whole grain bread, topped with diced avocado or salsa or cheese, if you’d like — with everyone crammed a little too tight around the table, standing wherever there’s space, sitting in a circle on the living room floor, or huddled around a campfire. I can say from personal experience that these beans work in all of those settings, for people with all manner of dietary preferences and restrictions.

But honestly, I make these beans — which sit somewhere in between refried beans and black bean soup — at least once a week whether we’re eating with others or not. They usually go into tacos with whole wheat sourdough tortillas, shredded cheese, guac, and whatever vegetables have on hand for roasting. The huge quantity of leftovers gets tucked into quesadillas, scooped on top of rice, added to breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs and potatoes, or just reheated in a thermos for school lunches.

If you’re not sure whether the kids in your life will go for black beans, well, you know them better than I do. But there’s a good chance that these beans will pass muster if you stick them in a tortilla and pile them with cheese, since we all know most kids will eat pretty much anything if you put it in a taco. Also, they’re not spicy, so no worries about this turning into a Dragons Love Tacos situation.

Finally, don’t let the long prep and cook time deter you. Yes, these beans need an overnight soak, and yes, they need to simmer for a couple hours. But you can be doing other things for pretty much all of that. You could be working, if you’re a WFH person like me. Or if you leave the house during the week like a normal person, you can do your big pot on the weekend while you work on your crocheting or your list of chores.

Black Beans For a Crowd

You could eat these beans while walking around your garden, if you’d like.

Makes Enough for 8-10 | Prep time: 15 minutes, plus soaking the beans overnight | Cook time: 2 hours | Total time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, plus the overnight soak

Ingredients

• 2 cups dried black beans

• 1 medium onion, peeled and halved

• 5-6 whole garlic cloves, peeled

• 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce (I always use this)

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 tablespoons ground cumin

• 2 tablespoons chili powder

• 2 teaspoons dried oregano

• Salt, to taste

Directions

1. Place the beans in a large bowl or the pot you plan to cook them in. (A heavy Dutch oven is nice.) Cover with several inches of cold water and soak overnight. Drain.

2. Put the beans back in your pot. Add enough fresh water to cover by 2-3 inches. Add the halved onion, garlic, tomato sauce, olive oil, cumin, chile powder, and dried oregano. Cover and bring to a boil.

3. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Let the beans cook, partially covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, until they’re soft. Give them an occasional stir and add a little extra water if most of the water has cooked off. You’re going for beans in stew-like amount of liquid. Not too dry, but not swimming in broth either.

4. Use a spoon to scoop out the onion. Compost or discard it.

5. With the beans still in the pot, use a potato masher or the back of a spoon to crush about half of them, along with as much of the softened garlic as you can easily find. Add a very generous pinch of salt plus a bit more water if the pot is getting dry, then let the beans simmer on low for another 20 to 30 minutes. At this point, you should have a pot of very thick, creamy beans. Something in between refried beans and a very thick black bean soup.

6. Taste the beans and add more salt if you think they need it. Serve in tacos, over rice bowls, with scrambled eggs, or just on their own. The beans will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Some more good things

The section on the right is the new one.

My last pot of black beans got made while I re-filled some of my sidewalk cracks with mosaic tiles. (See!) I’d put the original tiles in a few years ago, possibly using suboptimal material (thin-set mortar), and a bunch of the tiles eventually dislodged. This time I set the tiles with cement. The whole thing dried much faster — hours instead of days — and I’m really happy with how the update turned out. Hopefully they stay put!