One of the claims to fame of Costa Rican cuisine is black beans. No one cooks a black bean better than a Tica! Well, unless you get the secret recipe from one ;-)! 

My gift to you: our family recipe and the best way to make black beans from scratch! (Bonus, they are even clean and 21 Day Fix approved!)

Ingredients

2 lbs dried black beans
lots of water
½ tsp baking soda
3 tsp salt
2 cups diced onion
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 tsp prepared mustard
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp olive oil (just spray the pan with olive oil instead when doing 21 Day Fix)
2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro
1-2 tbsp Salsa Lizano (optional)

Preparation

Step 1 – Overnight soak
The first step is prepping the beans so they can actually cook. First you carefully sort the beans, removing any rocks and bad-looking beans. (Yes, I said rocks! We have missed some while sorting and they are no fun to crunch! So don’t just do a cursory sort. Do a detailed sort in the palm of your hand or on the counter.) Rinse the beans and place in a 5 quart Dutch oven. Add baking soda and fill with water. Place in the refrigerator and let soak 6-8 hours or over night.

Step 2 – Cooking the beans
Drain the beans and rinse well to remove all of the baking soda. Fill the pot of beans with water and add 2 tsp salt, place the lid on the pot and bring to a boil. (Be careful—they can boil over and make a mess. I do this just about every time. :-/) Reduce to simmer and let them cook 1-2 hours or until beans are tender. You don’t want crunchy beans so let them cook long enough.

Step 3 – Spice ‘em up!
On medium heat, in a non-stick frying pan, add oil. (If you’re on 21 Day Fix simply spray the pan so you can control where you get your oil during your day. See note below for how to sauté with less oil.) Add onion and green bell pepper. Sauté until well cooked (bell pepper color fades). Add onion and bell pepper to the cooked beans. Be sure to rinse the frying pan with a little fresh water or bean water then add it to the beans. This way you get all these good flavors into your beans! Add mustard and cumin, then simmer for 1 hour so the flavors can cook into the beans. Add cilantro.

Beans can be served whole or you can blend them with a hand blender to make the very typical Tico mashed beans. We use the whole beans with rice for gallo pinto and the mashed beans in tortillas or with tortilla chips.

Now you are ready to enjoy a delicous, typical Costa Rican dish, or as my daughter calls them "Mama's Famous Black Beans"! Pura vida!

Notes

Sautéing with Less Oil: When I’m preparing food to eat during a 21 Day Fix, I don’t usually add oil to my dishes because I would rather decide each day where to add my teaspoons of oil or nut/seed butters. So, instead of using oil to sauté, I spray a non-stick pan with olive oil and add water when the sauté begins to stick. That seems to do the trick and allows the foods to cook.

Cilantro: When you buy a bunch of fresh cilantro and can't use it all before it goes bad, simply chop it up while it's fresh, place leaves in an ice cube tray and fill with water. Cilantro will taste fresh when you need it. I add 3 cubes to my beans each time, and it's perfection!

Salsa Lizano: if you have Salsa Lizano, a Tico mustardy sauce, you can certainly add that in Step 3. It adds a great flavor that’s markedly Costa Rican. However, I’m not sure if that would be considered clean since it’s a pre-made sauce. No worries if you don’t have any or don’t want to add it—the beans are still delicious without it.

Sugar: Typically, Costa Ricans also add a little sugar to the beans in Step 3. About 1 tsp sugar. I dropped that for us, and they are still great.

Let Them Sit: I like to let the beans sit in the fridge for 3 days so that the flavors blend nicely.

Storage: I portion out the beans after sitting for 3 days into 2-cup servings and freeze. Then you have delicious, clean beans at the ready!

Pinto Beans: I also cook pinto beans this way. My only change is adding 1/2 tbsp more cumin. They turn out just as delicious and can also be served whole or mashed.