Smokey Black Beans and Kale

I have been on a bean soaking kick recently.  For convince, I have used pre-cooked beans for most of my life.  I started the "from scratch" only recently but have quite a handle on it so far.  I am shocked at how easy it is.  As a younger dude, I tried to make some chicpeas from dry beans and ruined one of my mum's good pots by bot using enough water.  Going to hang out with my friends while they were boiling on high did not seem to help either.  Sorry mum.

Here we have no burned pots, just delicious black beans and kale.  It was fairly low fat too, for what that is worth out there in the blog world.


Smokey Black Beans and Kale

8 cloves of garlic (chopped)
4 bay leaves
2 tomatoes (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
1 bushel of kale (torn from the stem)
1/2 green pepper (chopped)
1/2 red pepper (chopped)
5 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
2 cups of black beans (soaked)

1/3 cup of cilantro (chopped)
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of jalapeno pepper (chopped)
1 tablespoon of oil
2 teaspoon of liquid smoke
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of dried chipotle pepper


If you are using pre-cooked black beans, reduce the water to 1 cup.

In a large pot, bring the vegetable broth to a simmer and add the pre-soaked black beans.  If you are using pre-cooked black beans, add the beans and vegetable broth at the same time.  Add the liquid smoke, bay leaves, dried chipotle pepper, and cumin.

If you are using pre-soaked beans, this should simmer for about 1 hour and 45 minutes before moving to the next step.  Pre-cooked beans can ignore this.

In a saute pan, add the oil, onion, garlic, black peppercorns, jalapeno pepper, red pepper, green pepper, and tomatoes.  Cook on low heat until the tomatoes begin to break down (about 20 minutes).

After the beans have been simmering for about 15 minutes, add the kale, cover and reduce heat to low.  When the kale has reduced, add the ingredients from the saute pan and salt.  Mix well and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.  The longer this simmers, the more the flavors meld.

About 5 minute prior to serving, remove the bay leaves and add the cilantro.  This dish is best served with brown rice.