Slow-boiled until tender (roughly 1.5 hours at a simmer) with an onion, salt, pepper (black and/or cayenne), garlic powder, cumin, and paprika. Spoon onto a flour tortilla, add shredded cheese and salsa, crema, BBQ sauce, whatever. Eat and enjoy!

And beans absolutely do belong in chili!

Red beans and rice.

Slice up about a pound of kielbasa or andoullie sausage, brown it with some vegetable oil in a large pot, then lift out the sausage and set it aside. Add in your trinity (diced onion, celery, green bell pepper) and saute it for about 10 minutes. Add minced garlic to your preference (I usually do 1 clove) a tablespoon of tomato paste, probably 2-4 tablespoons of Cajun seasoning, and stir it for like 5 more minutes until everything is coated and gloopy. Add your sausage back in and 3 cans of red beans (maybe 24oz?) drained and rinsed. Add enough beef stock to just barely cover everything, and grind black pepper into the mix until your hand cramps up. Then add a lot of Louisiana Hot sauce. You can use Frank’s Red hot in a pinch. If you use Tabasco I will jump through this phone and slap you. Let this concoction simmer on low heat, covered, for about 20 minutes to cook the beans, then uncover and let it condense until you get the texture you want. Helps to smash about half of the beans with a spatula to thicken the mix. Serve over rice with diced green onions, cheese, sour cream, or whatever. Re-heats well and will stay good in a container in the fridge for a week.

Hummus! Five ingredients, five minutes, a full batch. All you need is a food processor and you’re good to go.

• Garbanzo beans

• Garlic

• Salt

• Tahini

• Lemon juice.

I usually throw in some cumin for a minor twist on basic hummus.

I got this recipe from a Sorted video. It’s not exact, cause I don’t remember the details, but I really like it. It’s a honey-harissa halloumi tray bake. I eyeball the quantities, but it’s always been good to me, exact quantities/ratios aren’t super important.

Preheat oven to 400F/200C

One large red onion, chopped pretty big. I quarter it, and then chop each quarter into 3 chunks, and break it all apart with my hands when saucing it up.
About one can kidney or navy beans. I usually use a bit less than a full can, or I guesstimate the equivalent of cooked-from-dry.
A handful of nice black olives, pitted. You want some salty savory ones, not the ones come from a can and taste like metal.
One block of halloumi, about 200-250g, cut into large pieces. 6-8 pieces depending on the size.

The sauce is as follows:
2-3 tablespoons of harissa
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2-3 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup
2 ounces of olive oil
You can vary the spiciness by changing the ratio of tomato paste to harissa.

Chuck all the main ingredients in a baking tray, coat everything in sauce, stick in the oven. After 20 minutes, the onions are softened but still have some bite. If you want them softer, bake a bit longer. Serves 2-3, but it makes a decent side in smaller servings.

If you can get them, I like to add brined (not dried) peppercorns. But you can basically add anything to this and it’ll be good. It’s sweet, salty, savory, and spicy with pops of flavour from the olives. In the time it takes your oven to preheat, you should be done preparing everything and it should be ready to go in.

Black eyed peas I love “Texas Caviar” style. There’s a few variations, but basically saute peppers & onions plus whatever other aromatics you like (celery, carrots, garlic, etc…). Add beans, southwest-type spices, some oil and water / stock. Bake until tender.

One example: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a10902/hoppin-john/

Something I do which I’ve come to find is unusual is a Mexican-ish side dish. Soak and cook black beans. Then cook some onions in another pot, when soft add some cumin seeds and bloom then, deglaze with tequila, add the black beans and orange juice. Smash some of the beans to make it thicker. Cover and simmer for an hour. Its a magnificent side.

Instantpot. I eat pulces every day mostly as a variety of curries.

Chili and refried. And by refried I don’t mean as a side dish but as the meal. Top it with whatever you have on hand and a a side of chips as a delivery system.

I’m always adding a teaspoon of homemade chili powder and another teaspoon or two of ground cumin to a large can of refried beans to add a lot of depth of flavor.

Spicy beanssssssss

I like to add small beans to mac & cheese. I started doing this recently, and it’s surprisingly good.

I’ve never successfully reconstituted beans, its the one thing I’ve tried I can’t cook. I think my water is too hard, I’ll simmer them at low temp for literally days in the crock pot and they don’t get soft. I’ve read Guides, I’ve seen videos, the beaniverse just said fuck this girl in particular.

I get the canned mixed kidney beans and make chili with them. Back before I went vegetarian I’d cook them with some cross-cut ribs and marrow. Nowadays I use minced mushrooms and seitan

Justin Wilson’s Red Beans and Rice

https://www.food.com/recipe/red-beans-rice-175545

I vote chilli as well. Just made a batch with ground turkey a couple days ago. Cheap, relatively nutritious, and tastes pretty good imo.

I’ve been on a bean kick since I found bags of 15 bean soup mix for less than $3. The creamy large Lima beans are my fave. I toss the ham flavor in the trash and make a batch with whatever I have on hand. The following batch was my favorite so far:

• 20 oz 15 bean soup - soaked overnight
• Two small white onions - diced and browned with a pinch of salt and sesame oil
• Eighth red cabbage chopped and browned in a skillet
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 6oz crimini mushrooms coarsely diced and browned - finely dice stems
• 6oz white button mushrooms coarsely diced and browned
• 1/4 cup textured veggie protein
• 1 heaping tbsp chili powder
• 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp potassium salt
• 1 tbsp MSG
• Half tsp cracked black pepper
• Half tsp garlic powder
• Half tsp paprika

The biggest thing to remember is to make sure that you get the rehydrated beans in a good boil for at least 10 minutes to denature the toxic proteins, otherwise you’ll have an upset stomach.

I make Cuban style black beans (but I increase the amount of basically every seasoning) and use the leftovers to make enchiladas. I don’t know why black bean enchiladas aren’t a thing because they’re delicious.