Black Beans 500g

For the best ever chili beans try the following easy recipe;

Mary-Ann’s Californian black bean Bowel/Nachos

Californian Black Bean chili                             

• 500g black beans or 3-6 cups  of black beans
• 1 dessert spoon of Mary-Ann’s Veg stock powder
• 1 red onion or 2-4 leeks or 4-6 spring onions
• 1 finely chopped red pepper and 1 finely chopped chili
• 500ml Tomato puree or crushed tomato
• Chopped coriander (cilantro)

If using dried beans, cover with water, soak overnight and pour off – rinse and cover with water again.

Place on stove – bring to the boil and simmer gently until done – don’t add salt until the beans are soft as salt prevents the beans getting soft.

Add 1 dessert spoon of Mary-Ann’s Veg stock powder once they are just done and simmer another 10 -15 minutes.  Leave the lid off if needed to make sure water is reduced to minimum.

Dry stir fry 1 red onion or 2-4 leeks or 4-6 spring onions (finely chopped).   Add 1 finely chopped red pepper and 1 finely chopped chili (be careful of the fumes they can make you cough!)

Simmer until well cooked and stir all the time to stop it catching, then add 500ml Tomato puree or crushed tomato simmer for 15-30 minutes.

Then add the cooked beans, simmer 5 minutes or longer and serve in a bowl with chopped coriander (cilantro).  Make cashew sour cream and chopped spring onion and this can be served with rice.

 Cashew ‘sour cream’                                        

• 1 cup raw  sunflower seeds or cashew nuts
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp. Mary-Ann’s Garlic & Herb salt
• Optional – 1 tbsps. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Optional – 1 tsp Mustard powder
• Blend well until rich and creamy

Serve with beans

OR and this is a HUGE OR

Place the beans in a baking dish, pour the seed/nut cream over the top and push Mary-Ann’s Organic Corn chips into the dish – covering thw hwole surface with small gaps in between.

Bake at 160-180°C until the ‘cream” is lightly browned – remove and serve with extra corn chips

Remember to have some raw food before your cooked food and so any raw vegetables, salad or juice will do

Enjoy ! wish I was with you to share!!

What’s New and Beneficial About Black Beans

• Recent research has shown that black beans provide special support for digestive tract health, and particularly our colon. The indigestible fraction (IF) in black beans has recently been shown to be larger than the IF in either lentils or chickpeas. It has been shown to be the perfect mix of substances for allowing bacteria in the colon to produce butyric acid. Cells lining the inside of the colon can use this butyric acid to fuel their many activities and keep the lower digestive tract functioning properly. By delivering a greater amount of IF to the colon, black beans are able to help support this lower part of our digestive tract. Lowered colon cancer risk that is associated with black bean intake in some research studies may be related to the outstanding IF content of this legume.
• The soaking of black beans in water has always found fairly widespread support in food science research as a way of improving overall black bean benefits. Yet, the discarding of the bean soaking water has been a topic of considerable controversy. A recent study that may help put this controversy to rest looked at many different advantages and disadvantages of tossing out the water used to soak beans. It found that the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages. On the advantage side of things, getting rid of the soaking water also means getting rid of some of the phytates and tannins that can lower nutrient availability. It also means reducing flatulence-related substances like raffinose (up to 33% removed along with the soaking water) and stachyose (up to 20% removed). A final advantage was the retention of resistant starch. While some of the total carbohydrate content in the black beans was lost along with the discarding of the soaking water, the amount of resistant starch remained unchanged. (Resistant starch is a type of carb that will typically make its way all the way down to the large intestine without being digested. Once it arrives in the large intestine, it can help support the growth of desirable bacteria in that area of the digestive tract.) On the disadvantage side of things was that 15% of total phenols were lost, we actually don’t think that that is an amount that is of concern. There was a slight loss of some additional phytonutrients as well as minerals. When adding up all of their findings, the researchers concluded that the many advantages of discarding bean soaking water clearly outweighed the disadvantages and then made this recommendation a firm part of their research conclusions.
• We tend to think about brightly colored fruits and vegetables as our best source of phytonutrients, but recent research has recognized black beans as a strong contender in phytonutrient benefits. The seed coat of the black bean (the outermost part that we recognize as the bean’s surface) is an outstanding source of three anthocyanin flavonoids: delphinidin, petunidin, and malvidin. These three anthocyanins are primarily responsible for the rich black color that we see on the bean surface. Kaempferol and quercetin are additional flavonoids provided by this legume. Also contained in black beans are hydroxycinnamic acids including ferulic, sinapic, and chlorogenic acid, as well as numerous triterpenoids.
• In Brazil—a country that, along with India, grows more black beans than any country in the world— beans have been given an exclusive place on the Brazilian Food Pyramid. In other words, beans are recommended as their own unique food group! The country’s 2006 Food Guide for the Brazilian Population recommends that beans be consumed at least once every day. That recommendation is actually quite close to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which establish 3 cups of cooked legumes per week, or 1/2 cup serving six days per week, as the minimum desired amount. Recent research linking bean intake to lower risk of type 2 diabetes, many types of cardiovascular disease, and several types of cancer was one of the key factors used by the Brazilian government and the U.S. government in establishing their bean intake recommendations.

Food Recommendations

Many public health organizations–including the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society–recommend legumes as a key food group for preventing disease and optimizing health. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends 3 cups of legumes per week (based on a daily intake of approximately 2,000 calories). Because 1 serving of legumes was defined as 1/2 cup (cooked), the Dietary Guidelines for Americans come very close to the recommendation of 1/2 cup of cooked legumes on a daily basis. Based on our own research review, we believe that 3 cups of legumes per week is a very reasonable goal for support of good health. However, we also believe that optimal health benefits from legumes may require consumption in greater amounts. These greater amounts are based on studies in which legumes have been consumed at least 4 days per week and in amounts falling into a 1-2 cup range per day. These studies suggest a higher optimal health benefit level than the 2005 Dietary Guidelines: instead of 3 cups of weekly legumes, 4-8 cups would become the goal range. Remember that any amount of legumes is going to make a helpful addition to your diet. And whatever weekly level of legumes you decide to target, we definitely recommend inclusion of black beans among your legume choices.

You will find many of our recipes containing beans gives you the choice between using home cooked beans and canned beans. If you are in a hurry canned beans can be a healthy option. Unlike canned vegetables, which have lost much of their nutritional value, there is little difference in the nutritional value between canned garbanzo beans and those you cook yourself. Like most packaging processes, canning can take place in a variety of ways, and some aspects of canning have raised research concerns with respect to canning materials and their potential health risk. One special concern in the canning area has been the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in resin-based can liners. We recommend cooking your own.

This chart graphically details the %DV that a serving of Black beans provides for each of the nutrients.