Slow Cooker Cuban Black Beans

Delicious, hearty and healthy black beans generously seasoned and cooked to perfection for several hours in a slow cooker. This is the ultimate definition of comfort food

Course Main Entree

Cuisine Caribbean, Cuban

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 6

Total Time 6 30

Servings servings

Calories 479kcal

Author Charla

Ingredients

2 ½ cups of dried beans see post if using canned beans
1 green bell pepper chopped
6 cups of water
1 onion chopped
4 garlic cloves chopped
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoon of cumin
2 teaspoon of oregano
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of himilayan pink salt
2 tablespoon of coconut oil
Juice of a lime

Instructions

Preheat your slow cooker and set aside.
Melt the coconut oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
Saute the onion, garlic, bell peppers and bay leaves until soft and fragrant.
Transfer the sauteed ingredients into the crockpot then add the black beans, water and stir
Sprinkle in the black pepper, cumin, oregano, and pink salt and stir again.
Set the slow cooker to low for 6 hours and cover with lid.
Remove the lid, squeeze the lime juice, stir then serve accordingly.

Notes

Cook for at least 4 hours. To yield creamy, tender and not mushy beans I do recommend cooking the legumes for atleast 4 hours. A gentle low heat is best. I found that 6 hours is a great sweet spot for the best tasting beans.
I used a total of 2 ½ cups of dried beans with 6 cups of water. I find that using the correct ratio of beans to water makes a difference to the flavour and quality of the recipe.
Bean to water ratio. Too much beans makes for an overcrowded recipe especially if not enough water is added and the beans are under seasoned. On the other hand, too little beans and too much water, depletes the flavour.
Soak the beans if required to do so. I recommend this!!
Sautee your base ingredients. In order to get the best flavour experience out of your slow cooker I do recommend this. The flavours will impart on the beans and liquid over the 6 hour cooking duration.
Preheat your slow cooker. Heating up the slow cooker in advance helps with the culinary continuity so the food will carry on cooking undisturbed.
Don't overstir the beans. Stir the beans before starting the 6 hour cooking process but try not to peek and constantly stir the beans throughout as this will most likely breakdown the beans.

Nutrition