Cuban black beans and rice
28 min · 22 g protein · 541 cals / serving
Silky, garlicky Cuban-style black beans simmered with a sofrito of onion, green pepper, cumin, oregano and bay, sharpened with a splash of vinegar and a pinch of sugar the way Cuban cooks do it, over brown rice with a quick lime-pickled red onion and cilantro. Pantry food that tastes slow-cooked, in under half an hour.
Ingredients
Pickled onion
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp lime juice
Black beans
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 medium green bell peppers bell peppers, finely chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cans (15 oz each), drained and rinsed black beans
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp salt, divided
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 pouches (8.5 oz each) precooked brown rice brown rice
To serve
- 1/2 cup leaves fresh cilantro
Steps
- Toss the red onion with the lime juice and a pinch of the salt in a small bowl and leave it to turn pink while you cook.
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook the onion and peppers with a pinch of salt for 7 minutes, stirring often, until soft and starting to colour.
- Add the garlic, cumin, oregano and bay leaf and stir for 1 minute, until fragrant.
- Add the beans, water, the rest of the salt and the pepper. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring now and then, and mash about a cup of the beans against the side of the pan so the liquid turns thick and creamy; add a splash more water and mash a little more if you like them silkier.
- Take the pan off the heat, fish out the bay leaf and stir in the vinegar and sugar. Taste: it should be savoury with a little tang; add salt if needed.
- Heat the rice pouches in the microwave as the packet says (about 90 seconds each). Serve the beans over the rice, topped with the pickled onion and cilantro. Leftovers keep 3 days in the fridge: cool the rice quickly, spread out, and refrigerate within an hour. The beans alone freeze for 3 months.
Good to know
Can I cook the rice from scratch?
Yes: 1 cup of long-grain white rice simmered in 2 cups of water takes about 18 minutes plus 5 to rest, so start it before the beans; that makes it a 35-minute dinner.
Is it spicy?
No, Cuban black beans are savoury, not hot. Put a bottle of hot sauce on the table for anyone who wants it.
Per
- Calories
- 95
- Protein
- (17%)
- 4 g
- Fat
- (16%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (67%)
- 17 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 4 g
- Sodium
- 220 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2164 kcal goes into the pot and 2472 g of ingredients comes out as about 2280 g of food: 95 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.