Hill of Beans

by Mark R. Vogel

Beans belong to a large family of plants known as legumes. Legumes have pods with edible seeds. Other legumes include peanuts, peas, and lentils among others. The black bean is one variety of hundreds of the common bean.

Beans were one of the earliest staples in the human diet. Archaeological evidence reveals that the black bean was being consumed as far back as 5,000 B.C. in Mexico and Central America where it originated.

Today the black bean is highly popular in numerous dishes throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States.

Most beans can be found in dried form. This necessitates either soaking them in water for a number of hours or boiling them prior to cooking to soften them.

Being more of a purist, I would almost always steer you toward foods in their most natural form. But beans are one of the very few products, (plum tomatoes being the other), that remain delicious and similar to their unfabricated state after being canned.

Thus, I almost always use canned beans in my recipes and forego the added step of soaking them. Furthermore, I recommend Goya beans, as in the following recipe for black bean soup.

BLACK BEAN SOU

As usual, let's discuss the ingredients. This recipe will produce a fairly hot (taste not temperature) soup. To cut down the heat, you can replace the long hot peppers or jalapenos with poblano or bell peppers.