Easy Black Beans with 'Cheesy' Sweet Potato Mash | Rebel Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the tastiest way to eat black beans? ›

Best Black Bean Recipes

Season them with lime juice and zest, chili powder, oregano, and/or cilantro, and serve them as a side dish with Mexican or Latin American-inspired dishes like tacos or taquitos. Paired with some cilantro lime rice, they could also pass as a meal on their own!

Black beans boast a number of nutritional benefits, including helping to stabilise blood sugar levels. Like all legumes, they are particularly rich in dietary fibre and complex carbohydrates. Sweet potatoes are a brilliant source of beta-carotene which is important for healthy eyesight and bone development.

The Very Best Black Beans In The World start like most good things: with onion and garlic. One small onion (or half of a big guy) plus two garlic cloves is all you need, finely chopped. If you have a small red pepper or a jarred roasted red pepper, chop that up too and add it to the mix.

Place the sweet potato meat into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and add the orange juice, cream, butter, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Mix together until combined but not smooth and transfer to a baking dish. Bake the potatoes for 20 to 30 minutes, until heated through.

Technically, canned black beans are already cooked, and you can use them right out of the can. Cooking canned black beans will make them taste even better.

Canned black beans are a versatile, ready-to-use ingredient that you can use to boost the nutrient content of many dishes. They're a rich source of plant-based protein and fiber. This makes them a weight-loss-friendly food that may also help you manage blood sugar levels and lower your risk of heart disease.

Just one sweet potato gives you 102% of the vitamin A you need each day. This helps keep your eyes healthy as well as your immune system, your body's defense against germs. It's also good for your reproductive system and organs like your heart and kidneys.

If you enjoy sweet potatoes, you can absolutely enjoy them daily. However, eating multiple sweet potatoes every day could cause a harmless condition called carotenodermia, where your skin turns yellow-orange. You may also want to be cautious about your sweet potato intake if you have a history of kidney stones.

Antioxidants Aplenty

Purple-fleshed sweet potatoes are thought to contain super-high levels of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents. As these substances pass through your system, they balance out free radicals -- chemicals that harm your cells.

The addition of baking soda to the cooking water does two things: It adds sodium ions that weaken the pectin as explained above, and more importantly, an alkaline environment causes the pectin molecules to break down into smaller molecules that greatly weakens the pectin causing the beans to soften much more rapidly.

Do you rinse canned seasoned black beans? ›

If they are 'flavored' beans, don't rinse. Regular beans, without flavor, rinse.

I also like to add a peeled, smashed clove of garlic, or maybe a bay leaf or a few sprigs of thyme. After 10 to 15 minutes, the beans will be warm and fragrant, ready to be spooned over a piece of garlicky toast, or served alongside grilled sausages and sautéed greens.

While boiling makes sweet potatoes tender, it doesn't help much with their flavor. Most dishes that call for boiled sweet potatoes would be improved if you used roasted or baked sweet potatoes.

Boil the sweet potatoes in a large stockpot until soft, about 25 minutes; drain. When cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes and transfer them to a large bowl. While the potatoes are still warm, add the butter, cream, agave, cinnamon and salt, and mash until smooth. Sprinkle with the orange zest.

Though they can both be part of a healthy diet, sweet potatoes are generally healthier than regular potatoes, partly because of their incredibly high vitamin A content. Sweet potatoes are also lower on the glycemic index, meaning that they are less likely than regular potatoes to make your blood sugar spike.

Toss drained/rinsed/dried beans with a bit of olive oil (or avocado oil) and your favorite seasonings. You can add crushed whole seeds (coriander, cumin, fennel, mustard, etc.), woodsy herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage), red pepper flakes, crushed garlic cloves, and of course salt and pepper.

Sometimes black beans can come out tasting bitter. To prevent this, be sure to use an appropriate amount of salt. This recipe calls for a tablespoon, but don't forget to taste for salt when your soup is finished and add more if desired; it will depend on how salty your bacon is, too.

While lard has been replaced with vegetable oil or shortening in many households, the distinct richness and velvety texture it imparts to a skillet of refried beans is hard to beat. The closest substitute for lard is bacon grease, which is another form of rendered pork fat that's arguably even more flavorful.

America's favorite bean is pinto beans, according to the U.S. Dry Beans Council, often used to make refried beans. Navy beans, Great Northern beans, red kidney beans and black beans round out the rest of the top five.