Canned black beans (Recipe: black bean cakes with guacamole)

A condensed history of canned black beans and me...

Ages 0-14. No black beans. No beans at all. Seriously. My mother never cooked them.

Ages 15-16. Campbell's Vegetarian Baked Beans (not black). During my brief affair with vegetarianism in my high school days, I'd come home from tennis practice, open a can, grab a spoon, and eat those beans cold, right from the can. Loved, loved, loved them. I don't think Campbell's makes them anymore.

Age 20. Lots of beans, in all colors of the rainbow. My first apartment, in the early 1970s, had a decent kitchen. I saved lots of old jars, and bought lots of grains and pulses to fill them up. I didn't know how to cook beans (or anything else, really), but I had jars of black, yellow, green, and red beans, and the kitchen looked respectably hip -- or, more accurately, hippie.

Age 35 or so. Black bean soup! My first really great bean soup, on a visit to New Mexico, turned me into a bean lover. It looked like sludge, but oh, what fantastic sludge.

Age 43. Black beans and rice. Moros y cristianos. Ted and I finally had the real thing, at La Bodeguita del Medio, the famous bar in Old Havana, Cuba. When we came home, I started collecting Cuban cookbooks and tinkering with recipes for black beans and rice, bean soups, and bean salads.

Age 55+. The more I learn about black beans, the more I love them. The color, in addition to being seductive (and not always deep black), contains at least eight different flavonoids that have anti-oxidant potential. Loaded with fiber, black beans contain three times the omega-3 fatty acids of other types of beans, and they help to stabilize blood sugar.

Unlike canned vegetables, there's not much difference in the nutritional value of canned black beans and dried beans you cook yourself. The canning process requires long cooking time at a high temperature, which lowers the nutritional value of most vegetables, but beans require long cooking time anyway. And unlike dried beans, canned beans don't get stale and can keep for years in your pantry.

To use canned black beans, rinse them under cold water and drain them; if necessary, rinse and drain a second time. For salads, bean dip, salsa or brownies, use the beans as is; for soup or enchiladas, cook canned beans for 15-20 minutes.

I always have dried black beans in the pantry, but it's hard to beat the spontaneity of canned beans.

Black bean cakes with guacamole

I learned this recipe fifteen years ago from Baja, a short-lived restaurant in Boston's South End. Serve this with your favorite guacamole, or the recipe below. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

2 cups canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp mild chili powder
2 oz peanut butter
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1-1/2 oz all-purpose flour + a few Tbsp for dusting
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Roughly chop all ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, or mix in a large bowl, mashing the beans as you go. Form into small patties (this will be messy, as the mixture can be quite loose) and dust with flour. Film a large frying pan with peanut oil, and sauté the black bean cakes until nicely browned on each side. Serve with guacamole.

For the guacamole:

2 avocados
1 chopped plum tomato
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp chopped scallions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 chopped jalapeño pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for 1 hour.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Moros y cristianos
Carmen's black bean soup
Frijoles de la olla
Black bean dip
Mary's clean the freezer chili
South End Deep Root Chili

Comments

they seem delicious, to bad no pic of the finished product!!

canned beans have to be the best invention ever, I can´t think why anyone cooks their own.
well, not really, I just can´t get them right, myself, so I´d rather leave it to the canners, I guess.

This is like that Frank Sinatra song " It Was A Very Good Year", but for beans instead of women.

I love how you sass up the canned beans. Do you have a favorite brand? I'm partial to Goya, but mainly for the high salt content.

I only started eating black beans maybe when I was around 35 yrs. old. I did stop though because it was giving me hypoglycemia. Which was a bummer because I loved my sister-in-law's black bean dip.

Black beans are probably my favorite canned item - its so easy to throw together a fantastic soup, and they are the best ingredient for veggie burgers, as they hold together so well.

I haven't met a bean I didn't like! And I love the sound of the cakes you've posted here--I never would have thought of anything like that and that sounds like a fun and different way to enjoy them! I usually get stuck on just eating beans rather plainly...

I'm with you on this one. Some time in the 1960s a friend served me an incredibly exotic dish: Pepperidge Farm Black Bean Soup with a sour cream garnish. I thought it was chocolate: I was unaware of any bean thing but Campbell's chili and Heinz vegetarian beans. After the first un-chocolate shock, I loved it! I've been trying various black bean dishes ever since. Beyond Cuban and Mexican, there are some great Brazilian black bean dishes, too. Pepperidge Farm gave up on soup long ago, I think.

These sound very interesting. As a displaced New Yorker married to a Texan, I will have to try this recipe on him. I'll keep you posted.

All the best,

Mary

hahaha I hated beans, I don't know,maybe 20 years. But today I love all kind of beans. black, white, baked, cristianos y moros (ordinary in Brazil,every day meal, accompanied with meat, poultry etc)
Love your post really interesting, and fun

I also have jars of dried beans, looking so pretty in my pantry. But I never remember to soak them ahead of time, and I always end up going for the canned.

I've been eating black bean salad all this week. Yum! I love the canned black beans.

Paz

Delicious, you'll have to try the recipe! This site focuses on ingredients, so I don't often photograph the food, but always let you know what the ingredients or the packaging look like.

Lobstersquad, my new favorite way to cook dry beans is in my slow cooker (though I'll bet the rice cooker would work, too). I put them in without soaking, and let them cook on low for 18 hours. Then they're ready to make soup. But in the meantime, I could eat several meals made with canned beans, which are so much quicker!

Laura, now I can't get that song out of my head....

Julia, I'm partial to Goya also. They're delicious, and readily available in the supermarket.

Veron, that's a shame. I think beans are supposed to be pretty good for not raising blood sugar, but I surely can't eat beans every day either.

TW, same for me. Most canned vegetables are awful, except for canned corn (one of my secret passions...), and if you have both in the pantry and a tomato and lime on the countertop, you've always got a great meal.

Mike, the older I get, the more different varieties of beans I discover. I keep canned black and white and red kidney beans in the pantry, but black beans are my favorite, by far.

Mae, I remember that soup! It was probably very salty, as most canned soups are, and that's why we fell in love with them. Now it's so much fun to make my own black bean soup that I can't imagine buying it in a can.

Mary, good luck -- I hope your Texan will love it.

Sylvia, me too -- I'm a total bean lover now. I hope my friend Peter, who guest blogs from Brazil, is reading this -- maybe he'll share some bean recipes with us!

Pam, do you have a slow cooker? I'm making beans right now -- 18 hours on low, no presoak, and they come out perfectly. I make them into soup and freeze the soup.

Paz, black bean salad is so delicious -- especially with a bit of jalapeno pepper and tomato tossed in.

peanut butter in anything makes me smile. for crunchier cakes, i replace some of the flour with oats, finly chopped nuts and nutritional yeast.

Love the evolution of bean consumption in your life - mine is vaguely similar. As for the recipe - I'm intrigued by the peanut butter in the cakes. Is its flavor noticeable?

I am on a peanut butter kick so will have to give this a try. Nice post, Lydia.

I hardly have beans. I will try to make it into my meals soon. These beans in the photo looks really like those moist peanuts served in Chinese restaurants and I really like those. :D

Getting a pressure cooker changed my bean habits. You still have to soak (add water, bring to a boil, rest an hour or 2), but then you've only got a short exciting cooking time. I was using the slow cooker technique about 25 years ago -- beans + water overnight(on high?), then adding chili ingredients in the morning (down to low) and chili by dinner. Another good brand for the low salt folks is Eden. How about leaving out the flour on the bean cakes and using it for a dip? Since peanuts are also legumes, it makes sense that there's a similar look!

I wonder if the black beans we have here are the same type as what you have in the states. My mum loves to make Chinese-style black bean (clear) soup when I was young ... hee now I am inspired to make the soup some day.

I adore black bean soup... and love the addition of ginger in yours. Must try!

I love beans of every type, but my father loves black beans above all others. This sounds quite intriguing. Guacamole sounds like the perfect topping for it too.

I love the bean history...mine follows somewhat similarly minus the beans cold out of a can! That is hard core Lydia. I too will have to try these cakes out, they sound great with the peanut butter.

Bee, great suggestions -- will definitely try adding oats, which I love and which are so good for you.

Laurie, there's no overwhelming "Oh, peanut butter" flavor -- the flavor of the beans is still dominant -- and pb is a great binder.

Kim, hope you enjoy them!

Tigerfish, canned black beans are sometimes quite brown, like this brand (Goya), though cooked dried beans are quite black. But not black like Chinese fermented black beans!

Susan, so many good ideas! I'm still a bit afraid of pressure cookers -- one explosion in my grandmother's kitchen long ago has stuck in my memory, so I'm just catching on to the slow cooker method, which seems less scary to me! Using these ingredients as a bean dip is a brilliant suggestion!

Noobcook, I don't know, but these are not the same as Chinese fermented black beans, which I also keep in the pantry.

Ann, I've just made a huge pot of black beans to turn into soup. It is, truly, my very favorite sludge.

Kalyn, I'm with your father on this. Today I'm making a Cuban version of black bean soup -- and adding a bit of a hot kick to it, because I can't resist.

Callipygia, I'm not proud of my cold-canned-beans phase, but somehow I still love the taste of cold cooked beans -- preferably the ones I cook myself.

Hi Lydia,
Thanks for the comments you always leave on my blog, it's so nice of you! I have nominated you for the Brillante Weblog Award. Congrats!

I always have canned beeans on hand, just knowing there is a can or two of black beans and some salsa in my pantry makes me feel better and I know I will never starve!

Hi Lydia,
It's always nice to hear fellow bloggers write about the goodness of canned beans because I do rely on them a lot for a quick week day dinner.

I've never made black been cakes before, so this recipe will come in handy. It sounds perfect with the guacamole.

Have a good weekend ahead,
Nora

Jason, that's so nice of you. Thanks!

SimplyGlutenFree, I feel the same way. A can of beans, a jar of salsa, a bit of chicken stock or water, and you've got the makings of a pretty good black bean soup.

Nora, I'm so in love with black beans that I have canned, dried, and cooked-frozen beans in the house almost all the time. I hope you'll like these black bean cakes; the recipe came to me from a very good restaurant.

If I could pick only one food in the world to survive on, I think it would be black beans. I Loooooooove black beans. Love them, love them, love them!
I must try these cakes!

I NEVER had black beans as a kid either. I started eating them in college and have never looked back. There are always at least 4-5 cans in my pantry since they always make a great meal in minutes.

Kristen, one food for survival? For me, grapes. Seedless grapes, green or red or black.

Susan, I keep both canned beans and cooked dried black beans on hand, always. Can't imagine how I went half of my life without falling in love with them.

I have not been able to track down black beans. White beans 'mogette' are the local dish... Maybe when I get to the new area there will be more variety. Here it's mogette or nothing. And I';; be closer to Spain... They have beans!

Hee...I was probably in my 20s when I first tried black beans...now I need to keep a steady supply of them in my pantry...love, love love them.

j

Katie, once you get settled in your new house, let me know if you need a few cans of black beans sent from my pantry to yours!

Jasmine, my pantry feels naked without black beans, too.

Tried out the black bean cakes for a potluck. They turned out nice but felt like they lacked something... Cilantro, maybe, onions? I had some left over from the potluck and was wondering about how to consume the leftovers. I stumbled across a spicy sweet potato sauce recipe (http://www.veganchef.com/bajacakes.htm). That worked just right!

Mithila, thanks so much for your suggestions -- I'm not a cilantro lover, but I think that would be a nice, bright addition to this recipe. Love your idea for using the leftovers, too!

I love black beans too! My girlfriend and I have come up with a variation of the Garden Grill's black bean and butternut squash quesadilla that's definitely on rotation at our house!

Bob, I've had those quesadillas at Garden Grille in Providence -- delicious!