Black Beans & Rice with Mango Salsa

These black beans and rice are a bit labor intensive, but sooooo delicious and flavorful! It also takes about 2.5 hours total to prepare; about 30 minutes prep for the initial phase of the beans and creating the mango salsa, then about two hours to cook and prepare the bean add-ins to give them even more flavor. The trick is cutting up all of the vegetables at one time then it doesn't feel like so much work. I have also found that the mango salsa is best when served cold.

This recipe makes about 8 servings in our household so beware, unless you have a large family. We always have leftovers, but they always get eaten!

I've added some notes at the end to possibly minimize the amount of time and effort involved. Read through them and try some variations. I'm not one to forgo fresh vegetables, since I have the time, but I can see how these suggestions would be a must if I needed this dinner after a day away from the house.

Ingredients for the Beans:

1 pound dried black beans - see note

2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced and separated for Phase I and II

1 medium onion, minced

14 cloves garlic, minced and separated in half for Phase I and II

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons salt - divided

12 cups water

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 cup brown rice (basmati) (cooked according to package directions)

Ingredients for Mango Salsa:

2 ripe mangoes, peeled, and diced

1/4 red onion, minced

Zest of 1 lime

Juice of 11/2 limes

Instructions: Mango Salsa

In medium mixing or serving bowl, combine the mango, onion, lime zest, and lime juice, and mix. Refrigerate while beans are cooking.

Instructions: Beans Phase I

In a large soup pot, combine the beans, 1 bell pepper, 1/2 onion, 7 cloves garlic, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon salt with 12 cups of water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 2 hours. At this point, the beans will be tender but not splitting. At the end of the 2-hour cooking time, remove and discard the bay leaves.

Close to the end of the beans' cooking time, start Phase II.

Instructions: Beans Phase II

In a frying pan, add a couple tablespoons of water and cook the remaining onion, bell pepper, garlic, oregano, and salt over medium-high heat, stirring. After a couple minutes, reduce the heat to medium. Continue to cook, stirring, as the vegetables soften, 8-10 minutes. Add a tablespoon of water whenever the pan starts getting dry. Add the cumin, and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute more.

Add Phase II to Phase I. Using an immersion blender, fork, or potato masher, blend the mixture until about 1/3 to 1/2 of the beans are mashed. Try not to over blend - you still want some whole bean texture in your final dish.

Simmer the beans over medium heat until the liquid has reduced and thickened, about 6 minutes. The beans will be creamy and the liquid will thicken to sauce-like consistency. Add the lime juice and simmer for 1 minute more.

Chef's Notes: I have made these recipes exactly as written. The beans are labor intensive so you might be tempted to cheat and use canned beans. I do not recommend it as they will get very mushy and since the beans would already be cooked, they won't have the chance to absorb all of the wonderful flavors you're adding.

I guess you could cheat and just make Phase II with canned beans - this will be a compromise and not quite as flavorful but possibly still tasty.

Also remember, there are diced vegetables in the frozen food section of grocery stores. So, you could probably find frozen diced onion and diced green bell pepper to minimize the work. You could also buy jarred minced garlic usually in the Asian food aisle, and pre-cut mango in the produce section. Lime zest is available in the baking aisle (spice section) and lime juice in the juice aisle.

If you are short on time, there are a couple of options: either make Phase I after dinner one night and then just reheat with Phase II the next night. Or, put Phase I in a crockpot for 8 hours on low while you're away, (I do not recommend the 4 hours on high for fear of your liquid cooking away before beans are tender) then create Phase II when you are back.