Not your ordinary "black beans"

"Frijoles Negros"

Yummy, yummy, yummy in my tummy! I just love black beans! And Papa has a fantastic and super easy recipe for them Cuban style. This is not your average black bean soup. This is black bean soup with some attitude. One of the things that makes this recipe easy, is the use of canned, *pre-cooked black beans. This recipe can be doubled or tripled and still be tasty!

This dish, canned or not, is one of my personal favorites. It goes with white and brown rice alike, but in "authentic cuban" food, only white rice is used.

*NOTE: Raw black beans can be used, but requires a different cooking method.

The ingridients

(1) Large can pre-cooked black beans
(2) Medium size onions

(1) Small green bell pepper

(5) to (7) Large garlic gloves

(3) Bay leaves

(10) Pitted Green Olives

Olive Oil

Pinch of Ground Oregano

Pinch of salt (to taste)

Splash of vinegar

The process

This recipe is for (1) Large can of black beans. Begin by chopping the onions and garlic gloves. Set inside a deep pot. Slice the green bell pepper into 1/2 and use only one 1/2, adding it to the pot. Add in the bay leaves, ground oregano, salt and about 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Place the pot on the stove on high. Begin to fry the ingridients, stirring occassionally, until the onions, garlic and green bell pepper are semi-soft. Reduce heat to low.
Open can of black beans and empty into the pot. Using the now empty can, measure one can of water and add to the pot. Add in the olives. Next pour a good drizzle of olive oil over the top (1/8 cup or so). Turn the heat up to medium and cover. Cook, stirring occassionally, for approximately 30 minutes then uncover and continue to cook over medium heat until the bean sauce thickens.

Once it is a thick as you would like it, add the vinegar. NOTE: Adding in the vinegar stops the thickening process! Be sure you like the consistency first! Cook another few minutes and serve.

Your finished dish! Super tasty, delicious "FRIJOLES NEGROS"