Black Bean Pilaf Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Do you need to soak black beans? ›

"Black beans cook so quickly soaking only saves 30 minutes or so. It also marginally helps keep them whole, but you're going to be pureeing some anyway. and the flavor is so much better. Just sayin."

"I recommend adding a fresh mango avocado salsa made with red onion, cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice, and a pinch of salt to brighten up the dish. Because the beans and rice have so much earthiness, the fruit and acidity will lighten the plate. A margarita is always great, as well."

The pilaf method is similar to the steaming method; however, the rice or grain is first sautéed, often with aromatics, before any liquid is added. For this reason, pilafs are highly flavorful. Pilafs frequently contain added ingredients to create a more substantial meal.

Short answer: They take longer to cook. Long answer: Many people claim that soaking beans is not necessary. The argument for this method is while it does take longer to cook, unsoaked beans end up having better flavor.

You don't have to soak your dried beans overnight.

Soaking beans in the refrigerator overnight will reduce the time they have to cook drastically. And the texture of the beans will also be it their best, with fewer split-open and burst ones. But like we said, you don't have to commit this hard.

Those aromatics in the pot will revolutionize the beans' final flavor. The aromatics I tend to use are onions, carrots, garlic, and celery, and then heartier, woodsy herbs, like rosemary, sage, and thyme, which marry beautifully with the earthy-sweet flavor of beans.

As for herbs, woody types like thyme, sage, and rosemary, are also great — add those in with the beans and water. I always add bay leaves at this stage, too, since they bring that herbaceous can't-put-your-finger-on-it flavor.

Best Black Bean Recipes

Season them with lime juice and zest, chili powder, oregano, and/or cilantro, and serve them as a side dish with Mexican or Latin American-inspired dishes like tacos or taquitos. Paired with some cilantro lime rice, they could also pass as a meal on their own!

"If you rinse your beans thoroughly, you will have a consistently flavored product, but if you do not rinse them, different amounts of salt will remain in the dish each time you cook it, and it will be hard to cook consistently," he says.

Here's a primer to get you started so you can get to making burritos, tostadas, black bean and corn salad, or an enchilada casserole. We even love to serve them alongside a simple roast chicken with rice or blackened tilapia! Get the Black Bean recipe.

What makes a pilaf a pilaf? ›

Pilaf (US: /ˈpiːlɑːf/), pilav or pilau (UK: /ˈpiːlaʊ, piːˈlaʊ/) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some technique for achieving cooked grains that do not adhere to each ...

Generally speaking, the best type of rice for pilaf is long-grain white rice. With its unique scents and above-average length, basmati rice is a great option for pilaf.

First, rinse and sort the dry black beans. Remove any debris such as stones. If soaking, cover black beans in water by about 4″ and soak for 8-24 hours. They'll soak up quite a bit of liquid.

It really isn't necessary to soak beans, it just speeds up the cooking time a bit. Just rinse them thoroughly and pick out any debris then cook the beans a little longer than you would if you would have soaked them. You can also cook them in a slow cooker.

The idea behind soaking dried beans is that it makes the beans cook more quickly and evenly. It's also been posited that soaking beans breaks down some of their complex sugars, making them easier to digest. Because every stomach is different, we didn't test for digestibility.

Soaking thoroughly cleans accumulated buildup on the surface of the bean, such as dirt, pesticide residue or contamination from rodents and insects. Soaking also allows beans to cool evenly. Like grains, soak at room temperature for 4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.