Black Beans and Greens

So yes, the sidebars are empty, the social media buttons are MIA, and the recipe index seems to be directing to the wrong URLs, but I promise it will all be sorted soon. And here is a recipe for some smokey, spicy black beans, which is perfect on a bed is fluffy rice, and sprinkled (generously!) with cilantro. I also made some fried ‘plantains’.

Except, they aren’t really plantains. I can’t find them here, except maybe that one time I saw it on sale at the Gloucester Green market and I didn’t have any money on me (dang it). So I cheated, and I used a terribly underripe banana instead. It worked, kinda, but if you can find plantains, use plantains. It’s a whole lot more savoury and starchy!

I’ve got to say, that was the first time I have ever eaten a green banana. Usually, I let the sit on my kitchen counter, stems shooting out all that glorious ripening enzyme (is this how it works?) into the air and turning them a gorgeous, freckly yellow. Spotty bananas are good pals, only eat spotty bananas, but this is the exception.

Ingredients:

1 small white onion, chopped

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsbp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 can black beans, drained

2 cups of kale leaves, shredded and stems removed

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 large underripe banana

coconut oil

coriander

Rice, to serve 2

Method:

In a saucepan, fry the onion and garlic until fragrant. Add in all the spices and continue to fry another minute. Add in the black beans, kale and lemon juice and let this cook for about 5-10 minutes, stirring every now and then. In the meantime, heat up a frying pan with coconut oil, slice the banana into thick 1-inch chunks and fry them until golden on either side, about 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Serve the beans on top of rice, garnished with cilantro and the banana on the side.