These nutritious and filling Brazilian Black Beans are a cooked with onions and garlic and seasoned perfectly with coriander, cumin, and oregano. What’s not to love?
Black beans make a great side dish. Some of our favorite main dish recipes to serve these with are Slow Cooker Cuban Mojo Pork, Crispy Mexican Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas, Sriracha Mayo Marinated Grilled Lamb Chops, and Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Barbacoa.
Brazilian Black Beans
Remember how last week I posted a recipe for Brazilian style white rice? Well, man cannot live on bread rice alone. (I hope it’s not blasphemous to quote the scriptures this way.)
Seriously though, rice & beans is a staple for millions and millions of people around the world and for good reason. It’s delicious!
And together they make a complete protein so they are super nutritious and filling too! Also, be sure to make a batch of Brazilian lemonade to go with them!
I could eat rice & beans every.single.day. and I’m not even kidding. I spent a good part of my life doing pretty much just that when I was serving as a missionary for my church and ate whatever was served to me, which was often rice and beans (although Haitian style rather than Brazilian black beans like I’m sharing here – my favorite Haitian version will come in time because they are quite different but also ridiculously delicious).
Now, you could make these beans using canned black beans. But dry beans are typically ½ to 2/3 the cost of canned beans, so you can save quite a bit of dinheiro using the dried variety. The only catch is that unlike canned beans, dry beans need to be soaked overnight before cooking them.
Or you could make them using a pressure cooker and speed up the process, but unfortunately, I don’t have one (or the room to store one!).
So today I want to share with you a secret to using dry beans that is perfect for somebody like me, who never, ever remembers to start soaking the beans the night before. It only takes an hour and starts the softening process so that the beans will cook more quickly and evenly. And during that soaking time, you can be working on preparing the rest of your meal, so really this is kind of a perfect and economical solution.
Plus, it’s just really satisfying to use dry beans, you know?
So here’s what you do. First dump your bag of dry beans into a colander and rinse them well, looking for little rocks or debris.
Honestly? I’ve never found anything. But I see this advice every time I ever read anything having to do with dry beans so I figure it must be important, right?
Then you dump the rinsed beans into a pot big enough to hold your beans and enough water to cover them with a full 2 inches of water. (Incidentally, this method works regardless of whether you are doing a small or large amount of beans).
Stick the pot on the stove over high heat and bring it to a boil. Let it boil for 1 minute before removing the pot from the heat and sticking a lid on it.
After that, you just let the beans soak for an hour, then drain and rinse and you are ready to go! Easy-peasy!
Once your beans are soaked, drained and rinsed, they go back in the pot and cook for about an hour.
Towards the end of the cooking process, you saute onions and garlic in a little oil, and then mix in the soaked and cooked beans and some of my favorite spices that are commonly used in latin dishes (cumin! coriander! oregano! where would I be without you?!), and voila, you have fantastic Brazilian black beans to serve with rice as a simple lunch, or as a side with some delicious grilled chicken and avocado (sooooo good). Or you can make extra to use in enchiladas or fajitas or salads later in the week.
More Recipes You Might Enjoy If You Like Beans
- Best Baked Beans Recipe
- Charro Beans (Frijoles Charros)
- Cafe Rio Black Beans & Cilantro Lime Rice
- Vegetarian Swiss Chard and Pinto Bean Burritos
- Best Ever Meaty Mushroom Chili
- Instant Pot Pork and Beans
- Instant Pot Refried Beans
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Brazilian Black Beans
Ingredients
- 1 lb. dry black beans
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2/3 cup diced onion
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tablespoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon oregano
Instructions
Quick-soaking the beans
- Pour the dry black beans into a colander and rinse with cool water, looking for small rocks or debris. Transfer to a large pot and add enough water to cover the beans with 2 inches of water.
- Place the pot on the stove over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Allow the water to boil for 1 minute, then turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid. Let the beans soak for 1 hour, at which point they won’t be cooked but will be at the same point as if you had soaked them overnight (which I never remember to do). Drain the beans and rinse well in a colander before using them in your recipe.
Cooking the beans
- In your large pot, combine the drained and rinsed soaked beans with the chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 60-90 minutes, until beans are almost completely cooked. Mine have always been closer to the 60 minute mark, but if the beans are older they might take a little longer to cook.
- When the beans are getting close to being done, heat the oil in a separate pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and saute for 3-5 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic in the last 30 seconds, stirring to keep it from burning. Add the cooked onions and garlic to the black beans cooked in chicken broth (do not drain), along with the remaining spices and salt and pepper and stir to combine.
- Simmer for another 10-15 minutes, until beans are tender, then use the back of your stirring spoon to mash some of the beans against the side of the pot to thicken the mixture just a bit and create a sort of gravy. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper, if needed, before serving.
My mother used to make beans growing up, because they are rich in protein, and they do go great with rice. I’m more of a black beans kinda gal myself, so this sounds great. Now to get a pressure cooker! 😉
It’s a sign … I’ve been seeing black bean recipes all over the place. I’m buying a bag of beans at the grocery next week and trying several of the recipes. …I better get the really big bag.
They are so versatile – I do the same thing!
I never remember to soak beans overnight either. Definitely got to try your method. We eat a lot of black beans.
I really need to try this! I usually just open a can of black beans and dump them out…this sounds SO much more flavorful!
I grew up eating beans a lot..!! Mom would make a lot of beans and lentils. I love them. Still have to get my kids to like it though. They have moment… This looks so delicious.
Loving the spices and flavors in this dish…perfect side! I always usually use the canned beans to save on time but I do have a bag of dry black beans in the pantry. Perfect recipe to use them for!
Black beans are a staple in our household, so this is perfect! I’d love to make a big batch and put them in lunch salads, tacos, and so many other things throughout the week!
I am latin so beans are always a side dish that I have available either in the freezer or in the fridge. We love beans in every meal. Black beans are my favorite.
I love black beans but had no idea how to cook them. I usually use canned, but now I am going to skip the can and try this!
Hi I tried your recipe using beans I’d soaked the night before. First time I’ve ever cooked black beans . They are delicious…but I was left with a whole lot of water in the pot. I’ve just taken a few cups out so looks better…is this normali? To be so watery…didn’t seem right. Imashed so easy of the beans also.
I’m not quite sure at what point you were left with so much water? After soaking the beans, you drain all the water, then add 2 cups water and 4 cups chicken broth and cook them for 60-90 minutes, at which point, a lot of the liquid will have been absorbed by the beans. And what’s left should thicken a bit in the last step when you mash some of the beans. I can’t quite figure out where things went wrong for you but I hope maybe it was just a measurement gone wrong somewhere?
Hey,
Thanks for this. Trying it tonight! I’m a last minute dinner recipe girl so soaking dried beans is NOT in my vocabulary. Making a veggie red curry pasta tonight and these will do just perfect. Thanks!
Excellent recipe! I made it tonight and it was fantastic, delicious and wonderful. I made a few tweaks:
1 chopped green pepper
1 chopped celery stalk
2 cups vegetable broth instead of water
Increased cumin to 1\2 teaspoon
Increased coriander to 1\2 teaspoon
Increased oregano to 1 teaspoon
Omitted onions (I don’t like them)
Everything else the same
I followed the directions for the beans. While they were sitting for the hour, I sauteed the green pepper with the garlic and 1 chopped celery stalk. After the hour soak, per the instructions, I added the beans to the sauteed vegetables, added the liquid, and the spices. Followed her instructions and served with brown rice.
My family l loved it. Great recipe that you can tweak to your taste. Delicious meal. Thanks!
I made this today and it was great. I didn’t have any coriander so I used some bay leaf instead. I studied in Brazil but could never get the beans right when I tried to make them. This is the best recipe I’ve found so far.
These were incredible! I did as one other commenter and doubled the spices; glad I did because the flavor was perfect. Added a finely chopped stalk of celery and half a large jalapeño, also finely chopped. There was a ton of extra liquid (initial liquid was drained as directed), so I ended up simmering the beans for about an hour to reduce. They ended up so flavorful! This will be a go-to recipe for black beans.