Homemade black beans are so rich and delicious, especially when they’re topped with a dollop of cultured sour cream and some fresh homemade salsa! For an extra special treat, add some diced avocado and finely diced green onion!
Soaking and cooking beans in your crockpot is very easy and it’s a great way to increase the nutritional value of your meals. If you’re new to soaking, check out “How to Soak Grains for Optimal Nutrition.”
Time-Saving Tip: Cooked beans freeze great, so why not double or triple this recipe and store extra portions in the freezer for a future meal!
Crockpot Black Beans (GF)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups dried black beans, picked over and rinsed
- very warm water to soak
- 4 cups organic chicken stock
- 1 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion (or use green onions!)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp all-purpose dried herb seasoning (I like Simply Organic brand)
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh organic cilantro
- Optional: 2 uncooked strips of uncured, nitrate-free bacon
Step One: Soak Beans
Step Two: Crockpot
Instructions
- The afternoon/evening before you plan to serve the beans, place dried beans in colander and pick through them removing any small stones or other foreign matter.
- Rinse the beans well and place in a large glass bowl, or remove your ceramic crockpot from its base and soak directly in the crockpot.
- Add about four times the volume of very warm water to beans. (I use a combo of half "almost boiling" water to room temp water.)
- Place bowl (or ceramic crockpot) in your oven with the oven light on and the door closed for 8-12 hours. (You might want to leave a post-it on your oven door to remind you not to turn on your oven – trust me – been there done that! Ha ha!)
- If you have time, ideally, it's best to drain the beans, rinse them and put them back through this same soak process again (which would extend the soak time and help to further reduce phytic acid, and further increase digestibility).
- Once the beans are finished soaking, drain them, rinse them thoroughly and put them in the crockpot with the above ingredients.
- Set crockpot on low and cook for about 8-10 hours.
- Remove strips of bacon before serving.
Step One: Soak Beans
Step Two: Crockpot
Notes
Leftovers beans can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week, or frozen for up to one month.
Hi Kelly! Love your site! I have a question about soaking black beans. I followed your directions and currently have some on their second soak, but I noticed when I rinsed them that they are losing their color and turning a faded blue. I figure by morning they will have lost most of their color. Have you had this happen? Any suggestions? Thank you!
It’s normal for black beans to lose color (or bleed) as they soak. If you’re doing a second soak on them, you’ll notice they bleed a little less in the second soak. 🙂
These ROCK!!! I have always been intimidated by homemade beans… No
more! We are not buying another can. I added oregano and doubled the
cumin and cilantro. These are so full of flavor and fresh! Even my
meat-with-every-meal hubby happily ate a meatless meal as we turned
these into burritos with avacado, lime, cilantro, spinach and yogurt.
Thank you so much!!
Thanks so much for your kind words, Danita, and for emailing to let me know you had trouble with the captcha code. I entered this just to check it myself. Hopefully, the upgrade has helped fix the issue. So appreciate your kindness! Very happy you’re enjoying the recipes. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
I am new to your site but am LOVING your meal plans. I noticed that you follow Nourishing Traditions somewhat. Do you soak your beans in whey or an acid?
Hi, Sarah. Welcome to The Nourishing Home. So glad you’re here and happy to hear you’re finding my meal plans helpful. Yes, I do follow many of the Nourishing Traditions basic guidelines although I have been 100% gluten-free (99% grain-free) for a couple of years now. With regard to your question, I don’t use an acid medium when I soak beans, you can read why here: http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/03/how-to-soak-grains-for-optimal-nutrition/ (see #4 Beans/Legumes). Lots of blessings to you, Kelly 🙂
Question on soaking beans that is kinda weird! I soaked some pinto beans last week and had the WORST gas that I have ever had both times I ate them. Was that just a fluke or is that normal? I have never had that before.
Hmm, that is really odd? Did you change the soaking water (rinse them) and cook in clean water? There is also research that indicates that using baking soda can help reduce gas, so that’s something you may wish to consider. Here’s an article: http://nutritionfacts.org/questions/does-adding-baking-soda-to-soaking-beans-reduce-raffinose/ I hope this helps! Blessings, Kelly