Baked Black Beans

Corporate life, also known as that other life I live outside this blog, is often measured by how long it is until the next company recognized holiday and, for me, the long trek between MLK Day in January to Memorial Day weekend is the equivalent of crossing the Pacific Ocean in a paddle boat.

Are we there yet?

Thankfully, we are almost there and our corporate holiday drought will end with a celebratory long weekend, sunshine (fingers crossed), and a BBQ to welcome the start of summer. There’ll be hot dogs, hamburgers, Lays Original potato chips, ice cold beer, and the most important BBQ side dish of them all, baked beans.

In this case, sweet and smoky baked black beans.

Despite everything I know to be true about dried beans, I can never quite get organized enough to use them in recipes. Let’s face it, cooking with dried beans takes planning and a serious time commitment, both of which I’m not into right now, so I’m happy to use good quality canned beans instead.

Except for a little bit of veggie chopping, this recipe is mostly a dump and stir. It starts on the stove top where all the smoky bacon, onion, garlic, and bell pepper cook together. Apple cider vinegar, molasses, brown sugar, chili powder, and a few other pantry spices make up the sauce. The beans go in and the whole pot goes in the oven where it bubbles and reduces for an hour or so.

Thanks to the black bean short-cut there’s no waiting around for three to four hours for this side-dish deliciousness.

I made a big batch of these wonder beans and they were even better the next day after all the flavors married together overnight in the fridge. I may or may not have heated some up the next morning and piled them on a tortilla with a fried egg.

It was delicious.

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