Recipe – Black Bean Paste With Garlic and Vegetables

Recipe from the book 90% Healthy by Sharon Bar-Gil
Photography: Nimrod Sonders
Styling: Oria Geva

Black bean paste with garlic and vegetables is a dish that will take you straight to the food stalls of Mexico City. It is tasty, made with cheap ingredients, and very easy to make.

Apart from all that, black beans are remarkably healthy for you as they’re a primary source for many phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are plant chemicals that have been researched for their protective and disease preventive properties. What gives black beans their dark colour is the component called Anthocyanins. Black beans are also an excellent source of zinc, folic acid, and dietary fibre.

In this psoriasis diet recipe, black beans may be included in the group consisting of red cabbage, red onion, blueberries, and beets. Moreover, black beans contain an especially high quantity of resistant starch. This kind of starch that does not raise the sugar level in the blood. It’s a food preferred by the bacteria in the digestive system which is very healthy to cultivate.

You can make this paste with many other beans such as kidney, black-eyed or speckled, and get a different taste each time.

This recipe is best served on bread or crackers, enjoy as a vegetarian dish next to a big vegetable salad or, do it just like the Mexicans do: present it with rice and vegetables as a full meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups dried black beans, soaked for 8 hours in water to cover
• A piece of dried kombu seaweed or 1 bay leaf
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1 large red onion
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp ground cumin

Optional Ingredients:

• Finely sliced spring onions, including white parts

Instructions:

• Drain the soaked beans and put them in a large saucepan. Cover with plenty of water and cook with the seaweed or the bay leaf and the garlic. These will absorb the gases to better facilitate digestion later.
• Cut the onion, carrot, and parsnip into medium-sized dices.
• After 1 hour, when the beans are almost tender, add the diced vegetables and continue cooking for about 15 minutes until the beans and vegetables are tender.
• Drain the cooking liquid and reserve 1 cup. Remove the seaweed or the bay leaf.
• Mash the beans and vegetables with a potato masher. Add the olive oil and some of the reserved cooking liquid to achieve the desired consistency.
• Season with salt, pepper, and ground cumin. If desired, sprinkle with sliced spring onions.
• Serve warm.

Other Notes:

• Serves 4 -6 servings of black bean paste with garlic and vegetables.
• The paste will last for 3 days in a closed container in the fridge. Bring to room temperature and soften with a little hot water before serving.

Other Recipes:

• Rice Casserole With Root Vegetables And Herbs
• Black Bean Paste With Garlic And Vegetables
• Spicy Chickpeas