How to Make Vegan Black Beans

Here is a vegan, fat-free, low glycemic index recipe for black beans. It is simple to prepare vegetarian black beans in a way that is easy to digest and delicious.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1/2 cup of black beans
• small piece of kombu seaweed (about 1" x 1")
• thumb sized piece of ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled but whole
• spring or filtered water
• tamari soy sauce

1. Rinse the black beans and put them in a bowl that is at least twice as large as the volume of unsoaked beans. Cover them with water and let them soak for 6-8 hours.

2. Pour off the soaking water and put the black beans and kombu into a large pot.

3. Wash the ginger and add it to the pot.

4. Peel the garlic but add the cloves whole to the pot.

5. Add water to the pot so that it comes up to at least a few inches above the beans.

6. Bring beans to a boil. Turn down to medium-low and cook, covered for 2 1/2 -3 hours. Check on the beans occasionally and add more water if necessary.

7. The beans are done when they are soft and saucy. Don't boil off all the liquid -- the sauce is the best part. About 10 minutes before serving, add tamari soy sauce, a couple of tablespoonfuls or to taste.

8. Serve! Refrigerate any unused beans. The flavors will continue to blend and you may find that they taste even better the next day.

Tips & Warnings

• You can soak the beans for longer than 6-8 hours, but be sure to rinse them and change the soaking water every 8-12 hours. They may start to sprout if you soak them long enough. That's okay -- it only makes them more digestible.
• Don't have hours to soak the beans? Soak them in boiling water and you can get away with only soaking them for an hour.
• Don't have both garlic and ginger? That's okay. Either one by itself will still give the beans a nice flavor.
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• Don't add tamari soy sauce or salt until the very end. Otherwise the beans may never get soft.

Resources

• How to Make Vegan Roasted Root Vegetables
• How to Make a Healthful Vegan Salad Dressing
• How to Make Vegan Marinated Baked Tempeh

[miasavc]

on 5/25/2009 Very thorough. I haven't thought about soaking the beans in boling water. Thanks for that tip!

[docjenny]

on 4/14/2009 yummy! vegan black beans! and so simple!!

[cheapcindy]

on 1/17/2009 thanks for the recipe - this sounds great!

[ethoslogos]

on 12/29/2008 Very detailed recipe and instructions for making vegan black beans. 5*