Cuban Black Beans in the Crockpot

Hubby loves to cook some of the Cuban foods he grew up eating. We eat rice and beans on a regular basis. He never makes black beans and I decided to give this recipe a shot. Since we don’t have a pressure cooker, I adapted the original recipe for the crockpot. Most crockpot recipes really can be cooked all day. This isn’t one of those recipes. If you let it cook all day, the beans will become mushy.

The Sazon completa (aka Complete Seasoning) is necessary to bring out the flavor of the beans. It really makes this dish. You can probably find it near the Spanish foods at your grocery store. Ours sells little packets of the seasoning which is perfect.

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Cuban Black Beans

Yield: 8

Ingredients:

1 pound dried black beans
8 cups water
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 slices of good-quality bacon, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped green bell pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil for sautéing
1 Tbsp Sazon completa
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry cooking wine
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
Chopped cilantro for garnish
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Pick over the beans carefully and rinse well. Combine dried black beans with water in crockpot. Cover and let stand overnight. Make sure the water is covering the beans.

The next day, cook the beans on low for 4 hours.

Prepare the sofrito: Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium-heat frying pan and sauté the bacon slices until par-crispy. Then remove the bacon and add the onions and bell peppers. Cook until translucent and add the chopped garlic and cook for an additional minute. Season with salt and pepper.

When the beans have cooled slightly, add the sofrito, bacon pieces, cumin, sazon complete, vinegar, cooking wine, baking soda and bay leaves. Cook on low heat for another hour, stirring occasionally. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the bay leaves & garnish with chopped cilantro and serve the frijoles negros over white rice.

Recipe adapted from Mrs Regueiro's Plate

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13 Responses to “Homemade Green Bean Casserole”

  1. #
    1
    Cathy B. @ Brightbakes — December 7, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    wow..great to see a green bean casserole with ingredients that are actually found in nature! 🙂 thank you!
    love,
    cathy b.

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    2
    Carolyn — December 7, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    I think this homemade version has to beat the pants off the one with canned mushroom soup. I mean, with portobellos and shitakes? Yes please!

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    3
    Fun and Fearless in Beantown — December 7, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    I’ve only tried the “classic” green bean casserole for the first time like a month ago and I’m definitely recreating it this weekend – cream of mushroom and all! Yours, however, looks gourmet and unprocessed!

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    4
    Sinful Sundays — December 7, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    i’ve never had Green Bean casserole and want to try it so badly! I may just make the processed version to see how it tastes. Yours looks way more fabulous than I could probably ever get mine to be!

  5. #
    5
    Boston Food Diary — December 7, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    Yummmmm- well done in getting rid of the processed sections and going for the natural approach!!!! Looks delicious!

  6. #
    6
    Melissa — December 7, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    I’ve never had green bean casserole but this makes me want to try it! Yours looks really good.

  7. #
    7
    stephchows — December 7, 2010 at 5:00 pm

    home made green bean casserole! I didn’t know it was possible! 🙂 Personally I’m in the hate category… but I’d be willing to try this version 🙂

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    8
    Shannon — December 7, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    definitely looks better than the “traditional” version!!

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    9
    Shannon — December 8, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    Oooh, I am so excited about this! A friend requested green bean casserole for a small holiday party that I’m hosting, but I really, really didn’t want to make the regular version of it. This is perfect!

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    10
    sabjimata — December 8, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    everything’s better homemade!

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    11
    Lulu — December 19, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    This sounds like a very useful veggie side dish come the post-Xmas dinners. I did notice recently that oriental shops also sell roasted shredded crispy onions, if you find yourself very short of time one day (they are not expensive).

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    12
    Stella — November 17, 2013 at 11:01 pm

    Definitely the best green casserole recipe! I’ve been making Alton s recipe for years.

    • beantownbaker — November 24th, 2013 @ 5:51 pm

      Isn’t it great?!?

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