Fall is in full swing. And you know what that means? It's pepper season. I might be considered a pepper aficionado at this point. I eat an enormous amount of peppers. But I also like to grow my own peppers. And don't get me wrong, my apartment is a shoebox. However, I take over a good deal of the unused alleyway behind my apartment. Which isn't quite as treacherous as it sounds. It's far from the ideal growing setup. Although every little thing counts! From the at-home grow light herb garden to the alleyway pepper grow operation. And mine are finally beginning to produce fruit. So, I'm kicking off my fall pepper season with: Slow Cooker Black Beans w/ Super Chili Peppers.
And yes, peppers are fruit. They are the edible portion of a seed-bearing fruit grown from a flowering plant and are, therefore, not in fact a vegetable, which consists of every edible part of the plant other than the flowering bit (i.e. edible leaves, stem, bulbs, and roots). So, if you hear me calling peppers fruits, it's because they're taxonomically categorized more similarly with apples (similarly flowering fruit) than potatoes (not similarly root vegetables).
Gallery
Variations of Chili Pepper Black Beans
I make quite a few slow cooker black beans in the fall when the peppers in my garden are ripe. Although you can make them all year round with whatever spice level works for you. Today, I used super chili peppers. They're a relatively medium heat pepper, similar to a cayenne or Thai pepper or spicier than a jalapeño or serrano pepper, but not as hot as a habanero. Although feel free to mix and match your own favorite peppers or what you have on hand. I only picked up super chili peppers because the name was fun! And I sometimes like something that isn't going to scald your face off because you can only have so many ghost peppers and Carolina reapers.
These Chili Black Beans consist of super chili peppers, yellow onion, garlic, bay leaves, and freshly squeezed lime juice for bright and refreshing black 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 about making dried beans in a crock pot, I 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.
Leave a Reply