Who doesn’t love Mexican food?! We have Mexican in our house at least once a week, Taco Tuesday anyone? The addition of black beans to this recipe creates a tasty flavour and texture, as well as adding a significant amount of nutrients, read on…

It’s very important to prepare your beans properly before eating them. Beans contain a lot of phytates and tannins, called anti-nutrients, that can block the absorption of vitamins and minerals. A lot of people will avoid eating beans for this very reason, which is a shame because they are missing out on a rich source of folate, copper, manganese, B vitamins, phosphorus, magnesium and pre-biotic resistant starches (important for healthy gut bacteria). Instead all they need to do is prepare the beans properly so these anti-nutrients are reduced. This is the process I use:

• Soak your black beans in a large saucepan filled with water for 24 hours. Keep an eye on this and top up with water as needed.
• After 24 hours rinse the beans well, add fresh water and cook for 1 hour until the beans are soft and tender. You’ll see some foamy froth come to the surface of your water as you’re cooking the beans. Just scoop this out and throw away.
• Once cooked drain and rinse the beans before using in your dish.

This may seem like a time consuming process but really it isn’t. Here’s my tip: Soak and cook a large quantity of beans, set aside what you want to use in your recipe and freeze the rest to use later. This way it’s as convenient as opening a can of beans to use in your recipe.

Serve this dish with my Mango and Grilled Corn Salsa, recipe found here.

Happy sprouting, baking and cooking!

x Danielle