serves eight to ten
One of my very favorite things about our rural community is how the word neighbor is a verb. Just as they’ve been doing for decades, the local ranchers actively practice neighboring, where they take turns helping each other work cattle and ship calves. Mornings of work are always followed by a big noon meal, where everyone kicks off his or her boots and fellowships over a hot meal. While barn raisings and threshing parties used to be commonplace, our culture seems to have slipped away from the idea of coming together to accomplish a shared community goal and, sadly, sometimes we don’t even know the person who lives next door.
These rustic, savory beans don’t require much hands-on time, so they are a perfect make-ahead meal to share with a crowd, whether you’re raising a barn, working cows, coming together to clean up the neighborhood, or just inviting over some new friends. Be sure to serve them with a hunk of Green Chile Cornbread.
1 pound dried pinto or black beans
1 tablespoon bacon grease or unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 poblano peppers or other mild chile peppers, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups beef stock (here)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
12 teaspoons fine sea salt, plus more if needed
2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
In a stockpot, cover the beans with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then remove from the heat, cover the pot, and let the beans sit for 1 hour. Drain them and set aside.
In a second stockpot or a Dutch oven over medium heat, heat the bacon grease. Add the onion, peppers, and garlic and sauté until the onion is softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the stock, oregano, salt, black pepper, bay leaf, and drained beans.
Cover the beans with 1 to 2 inches of water and place the lid on the pot. Simmer over low heat for 1½ to 2 hours, or until the beans are soft. (Sometimes I remove the lid for the last 30 minutes or so if there seems to be too much water in the pot.) Taste the beans as they cook and add more salt or additional water if needed.
kitchen notes • This recipe breaks all the rules when it comes to cooking beans. I used to religiously soak all beans overnight before I cooked them, but have since discovered it doesn’t make much of a difference. (No, not even in the digestive realm, ahem.) Unsoaked beans take a teeny bit longer to cook, but not enough to make the overnight soak worthwhile for me. I use a quick soak method in this recipe, but technically you could skip the soaking altogether. If you are still set on an overnight soak, you can certainly do that. Just skip the quick boil at the beginning and proceed with the rest of the recipe.
For years I was petrified to add salt to beans while they cooked, as “they” said it would prevent them from ever softening. Imagine my delight when I discovered this wasn’t true. And hey—beans taste a whole lot better if they can bask in salt as they simmer. Be a rebel. Salt those beans.
The fresher the beans, the quicker they will cook. Very old beans (over a year old) sometimes dry out to the point that they will never really soften, even after many hours of cooking.
Serving a BIG crowd? This recipe doubles like a champ.