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Black Beans Recipe
Black Beans Recipe-July 2024
Jul 29, 2025 5:23 AM

  Indian black beans are different from those eaten by much of the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. The Indian ones are a very, very dark shade of green but manage to look black. The Central American variety is actually black. However, one may be substituted for the other, even though each has a somewhat different taste and texture. This is a recipe for dried black beans (Indian or Central American) cooked the way it is done in the villages of the Punjab. Those village homes that have a tandoor—a clay oven—leave pots of this dal to cook very slowly overnight over the embers. These beans are usually eaten with whole-wheat flatbreads, vegetables (such as eggplants), and yogurt relishes. They may also be served with rice. Whole-wheat pita bread may be substituted for the Indian flatbreads.

  

Ingredients

serves 6

  2 cups Indian or Central American black beans (the Indian ones are sold as whole urad with skin or sabut urad or ma ki dal, and the Central American as frijoles negros or just black beans), picked over and washed

  2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

  2 teaspoons very finely grated peeled fresh ginger

  2 cloves garlic, crushed to a pulp

  1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

  6 tablespoons tomato paste

  3/4 cup heavy cream

  2 tablespoons unsalted butter

  

Step 1

Soak the beans overnight in water that covers them generously. Drain them the next day and put them in a heavy pan along with 6 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil. Cover partially, lower heat, and simmer very gently for 1 1/2–2 hours or until the beans are tender. (Older beans might take longer to cook.)

  

Step 2

Add the salt, ginger, garlic, cilantro, and tomato paste. Stir to mix well and continue to cook on low heat for another 30 minutes. Add the cream and stir in. Just before serving, bring the beans back to a simmer and stir in the butter.

  Excerpted from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey: Simple, Delectable Dishes from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka by Madhur Jaffrey. Copyright © 2010 by Random House. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Buy the full book from Amazon.

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