Catfish Out of Water

Slow cooker black beans are incredibly simple to make. We sometimes like to think that beans just come out of cans. But they're far easier to make at home than most people realize! You really just throw a bunch of produce and beans into a crock pot and let sit for 8 hours. My favorite thing to do is to start it before going to bed and wake up to beans. Or to start them before I go to work and come home to freshly made beans. It's a lot easier to make than most people realize.

Using a crock pot negates the need to soak the beans ahead of time or peskily watch a simmering pot all afternoon. Truly nothing could be simpler. All that you really need are beans, some kind of seasoning, water, and a couple of hands off hours of cooking! For this slow cooker black bean recipe, I used roasted and puréed calabaza squash, homegrown habaneros, and a plethora of garlic, red onions, bay leaves, and various fall favorite spices.

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Variations of Slow Cooker Black Beans

I've been quite fond of making spicy black beans lately. I have fresh peppers ripening in the garden at the moment. I also just adore balancing out the heat with a hefty dose of squash. It's a great fall flavor profile and the perfect way to end the fresh produce season before the frost and snow sets in. But there are plenty of other ways to cook beans and I've been making them constantly for the last couple of weeks! It's also incredibly simple to mix and match in other flavor profiles and produce of your choice. As long as there's enough water to cook the beans, you can add in whatever else you want or have on hand.

The Fundamentals of Stovetop Black Beans

Slow Cooker Black Beans w/ Calabaza & Habaneros

The Fundamentals of Slow Cooker Black Beans

Slow Cooker Black Beans w/ Calabaza & Habaneros

This slow cooker black bean recipe combines calabaza squash, homegrown habaneros, and a plethora of garlic, red onions, bay leaves, and spices. I also used salt, pepper, coriander, and cumin. Although these are my go-to spices. You can just as easily mix and match in your own produce and spices to your personal tastes and preferences. Swapping out the peppers for sweeter or spicier ones is also a great way to customize it, depending on the heat level of your audience here!

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 8 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Latin American, Mexican

Servings 4 cups

Equipment

• Crock Pot

Ingredients

  

• 1 ½ c. calabaza squash roasted & puréed
• 1 ½ lbs. black beans ~3 cups
• 3 habaneros minced
• 6 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 red onion minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. pepper
• 2 tsp. coriander
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 ½ c. water

Instructions

 

Roast Calabaza Squash

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Cut squash in half and scoop out the innards to remove all of the seeds and stringy pieces.
• Once you've cut in half and removed the innards from the squash, wrap in aluminum foil. You can also place this on a baking sheet if you want to keep any of the juice from seeping through the foil.
• Bake for roughly 2 hours depending on size. Make sure to flip halfway through so that the squash sides are face up.
• Let cool to the touch.
• Remove the skin and add squash to the food processor. Purée until smooth, making sure to scrape the sides occasionally.

Cook Beans

• Add the beans and all of the other ingredients to a crock pot with the water.
• Cook on low for 8 hours, or until the desired consistency is reached. I like to start the beans in the morning and then come back to then after work or before bed to wake up to freshly cooked beans.

  The beans should retain their shape during the cooking process (and not start to break apart), but should be soft enough to pinch between your fingers or a fork. It's much like the consistency of a baked potato, where you could theoretically turn it into mashed potatoes, but it also stands on its own.

  There may still be some residual water left in the crock pot after 8 hours. If the beans aren't fully cooked, simply continue to cook until the water cooks in and the beans are the right tenderness. If the beans are fully cooked, you can drain the water or quickly simmer the remainder of it out on the stove. Depending on how old your beans are, they may require slightly different amounts of water to re-hydrate. Older beans will take more water and time, while fresher beans will cook in less time with less water.
• Remove the bay before serving or storing.

  The bay leaves are for flavor and not everyone wants to eat an entire leaf! So, take note of how many you put in and make sure to remove them after cooking. You can pull them out later. But, if you refrigerate the beans, they'll solidify more when chilled and the bay leaves will be harder to find. It's easier to do this while they're still warm and you can easily sift through them!
• If you want to make no-fry refried beans or more of a bean dip, remove the bay leaves and mash with a potato masher. You can also pulse in a food processor or purée entirely.

  This process might require more water. So, if you do have additional water left in the crock pot after cooking, you may want to reserve it and add back in if necessary to create a smoother no-fry refried bean consistency.

Tips, Tricks, & Notes

• For more information on puréeing the squash, I also have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Roasted Calabaza Squash.
• I also have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Slow Cooker Black Beans. Which has additional tips and tricks along with the rationale for not pre-soaking or rinsing beans and bean substitutions if you want to cook with pinto or other bean varieties.