Brazilian Black Beans

This was a close save as far as recipes go. When I was meal planning this recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook caught my eye. So I wrote down the ingredients, went to the market, and came back. I put the ingredients away and when I went to pull out the recipe the other night, I looked through the directions for the first time and realized that it was a soup.

Oops.

It's over 90 degrees here right now and soup does not interest me, and since we don't have central AC, I am not about to turn on the stove to saute, boil, simmer, and all that hot jazz.

So after a quick thought, I decided I would make the recipe work into something that I had envisioned. A mass of wonderfully tasty beans over some brown rice. And with some tweaking to the soup recipe, I did just that. Play around with it and make it yours, too. That's the fun with recipes, right?

Oh, and this took about 30 minutes to put together and there was no need to turn the oven on. Score. And we served this along side a nice hearty salad.

Brazilian Black Beans
Serves 6

• 3 cans black beans - rinsed and drained
• 3/4 c chopped carrots - about 1 large carrot (I gently chopped mine in the food processor. Easier for little teeth to eat, I say)
• 2 ribs of celery - thinly sliced
• 3 scallions - thinly sliced (both green and white)
• 2 large oranges - peeled, slices apart, and chopped into bite-sized pieces.
• zest from one of the oranges!!
• 2 t cumin
• 1 t coriander
• 1 t ginger
• some garlic powder to taste (because raw garlic would be just too powerful in this dish)
• 1/2 c orange juice
• 1 T dry sherry
• couple dashes of red pepper for some heat
• S & P to taste
• 3 -4 c cooked brown rice depending on how much rice you want with the beans

-- Start your rice and then start chopping and slicing
-- Mix the beans, carrots, celery, scallions and orange chunks all together in a large bowl.
-- Mix the orange juice, sherry, zest and all the spices in a small bowl and whisk until blended.
-- Pour the "sauce" over the bean mixture and stir til combined. Chill until ready or eat right then.
-- Put it on a bed of brown rice and top with some plain yogurt if you want.

Stay tuned this fall for the soup version of this. :)


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