| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr 35 min |
| Prep: | 20 min |
| Cook: | 2 hr 15 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 pound black beans
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 1 Italian frying pepper, halved
- Olive oil, for sauteing, plus 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 white onion, large dice
- 1 red pepper, large dice
- 1 green pepper, large dice
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/8 cup white vinegar
- Salt
- 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion, for garnish
Instructions
- In a large stockpot, cover the beans with water, covering them by 2 inches. Add bay leaf, cumin, oregano, and Italian pepper. Simmer until the beans are tender, about 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, remove the pepper.
- In a saute pan, saute onions, red, and green peppers until translucent. Puree in a blender, this is the sofrito.
- In the same pan, saute the garlic. Add to the beans, along with the sofrito, 1/4-cup olive oil, sugar, and vinegar. Season with salt and continue to cook until very thick, about 45 minutes. Garnish with finely chopped red onion.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 496 |
| Total Fat | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Carbohydrates | 87 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 21 g |
| Sugar | 11 g |
| Protein | 27 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Sodium | 672 mg |
Reviews
This did not taste right to me. I wish I hadn’t added any sugar at all. Although, I also had a ham hock in the pot, so IDK what it was supposed to taste like in the first place. I also ended up adding three times the amount of vinegar and some extra cumin. Still wasn’t right.
I’ve used this recipe for many years and every one loves my beans. This is my go to, I’m Cuban and my abuelita died when I was young so I never had a recipe passed down to me. I always cook the beans until soft in the first step, usually 2 hours plus. But other than that I make no other changes to this recipe. Even my Cuban dad raves about these beans.
No one wants to cook a dish that takes forever
Being Cuban and having done black beans almost all my life this is NOT a true recipe for black beans as we do it..
Twp very important ingredient are missing from this recipe, vinegar and sugar… try this:
Soak beans since the night before with half a bell pepper and half an onion. In the morning change the water but not with cold water, make the water room temperature.. lately I’ve been doing the beans on a slow cooker so now put your cooker on high for 3 hrs, then on slow for 4 hrs.. pinch one or two beans to make sure they are soft.. while the beans are cooking sautee: 1 onion sliced thin, 1 bell pepper sliced thin, 3 cloves of garlic smashed, 1 tps cumin, 1 tbs of oregano, 1 or 2 bay leaves, when the onions are translucent add to the beans.. Also add, 1 tbs of apple cider or vinegar, 2 tbs of sugar, salt and pepper… stir the beans and taste to see if it tastes all right.. let it sit until about 1/2 hr before serving, serve very hot with white rice on the side.. Buen appetito!
Twp very important ingredient are missing from this recipe, vinegar and sugar… try this:
Soak beans since the night before with half a bell pepper and half an onion. In the morning change the water but not with cold water, make the water room temperature.. lately I’ve been doing the beans on a slow cooker so now put your cooker on high for 3 hrs, then on slow for 4 hrs.. pinch one or two beans to make sure they are soft.. while the beans are cooking sautee: 1 onion sliced thin, 1 bell pepper sliced thin, 3 cloves of garlic smashed, 1 tps cumin, 1 tbs of oregano, 1 or 2 bay leaves, when the onions are translucent add to the beans.. Also add, 1 tbs of apple cider or vinegar, 2 tbs of sugar, salt and pepper… stir the beans and taste to see if it tastes all right.. let it sit until about 1/2 hr before serving, serve very hot with white rice on the side.. Buen appetito!
I loved this soup. We are vegaterians and we enjoyed this soup.
So DELICIUOS!! I altered a little after reading some of the reviews. I only used 1/2 lb of dried Black beans for the amount of Sofrito made here. I also added turmeric to the beans as well as bay leaf oregano and cumin. I added a whole jalapenos to the sauteed veggies for sofrito for some added spice and I used the juice of 2 limes instead of vinegar. This has got to be one of my FAVORITE soups! Made just enough for my husband and me to have a small bowl twice. So next time I may make a 1lb of beans and double the sofrito!
No rating yet, because I am in the process of making the soup, and combining it with another recipe from a cookbook. I just wanted to tell people who are having trouble with hard/soft beans. I had that problem for years, to the point where I stopped using dried beans. When I started again, I actually read the directions on the bean package. Here’s the secret. Bring the beans and water to a boil, immediately turn the heat back to a gentle simmer and PARTIALLY cover the pot. I used to put the cover all the way on. I have no idea why this makes such a difference…..but it does.
This soup turned out really tasty, and I’m not a big soup fan. I did add jalapeno instead of the italian pepper, and used dry black beans that I had presoaked. I skipped the vinegar and added lots of lime juice instead. Yum! I’ll definitely make this again.
This is excellent if you use a spicy pepper (ie.jalepeno ) as the frying pepper and prepare dry black beans (soak overnight) without the spices , adding spices directly to the soup. Adjust the amount of beans balanced to sofrito. A pound of dry black beans makes alot , so either make more sofrito or use less beans, I tried it once with 2 cans instead of preparing the dry beans and it came out great. Don’t omit sugar as this is the key to giving it a sweet sour taste (making authentically Cuban style) I have made this at least 6 times and it was devoured by my 3 teenagers, (1 veg)
I was so excited to recreate the BBS that I’ve had else where, but what a disappointment! Very bland when done. I tried adding some things to it to salvage it, but no luck. I should of used lime juice instead of vinegar. It just needed a lot of kick to it, but I couldn’t fiqure it out. This one of the worst soups I’ve ever had.