Puerto Rican Style Beans

Beans- Puerto Rican Style

Not to toot my own horn, but many people that I have cooked rice and beans for have always asked for my bean recipe.  I try to keep the ingredients that I use in all my dishes as simple as possible. I find that adding too many ingredients will just leave you with a tasteless dish instead of one filled with flavor. Remember always seal everything with a K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Sweetheart). You will also see that when I cook I like to use the same line of products and I encourage everyone to do the same if you can, remember that food company make their products to compliment other food products in their line. For my beans I always use Goya products. I have done this same recipe with other products but I find that Goya’s just taste the best.

Ingredients

1 can of Goya Pink Beans (you can use any beans, but I love pink)

3/4 can of Water (you'll see later what I mean)

2 cloves of Garlic

¼ of a small onion

¼ of a Cuban Pepper or Bell Pepper

½ cup of diced cooking ham

¾ cup of diced pumpkin (the smaller the size the better)

2 TBSP of sofrito

1 package of Sazón Goya with Saffron

½ can of Goya Tomato Sauce

1 TBSP finely chopped cilantro

Procedure

Use a medium size pot. Empty beans with liquid, do not rinse. Use bean can and fill ¾ of the way with water, add water to beans.

Add the 2 whole garlic cloves, the onion, and pepper. You can wrap in cheese cloth for easier removal later on. This is going to give the beans extra taste.

This is about the amount of onion you want to add, same goes for the pepper.

Add ham and pumpkin. Don’t worry about adding so much pumpkin to your beans, it will break down when cooking and thicken the beans, plus pumpkin gives your beans a bit of a sweet flavor.

Add everything else except cilantro. (There is no need to cook sofrito to than add to your beans, adding everything to the pot is just fine, trust me, cooking the sofrito beforehand is just wasted time, unless you feel comfortable doing so, but it’s not recommended.

Bring beans to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes. 

Use larger pot, this one was for the photo, once beans start to boil it may spill everywhere.

Turn off stove and add chopped cilantro. Adding cilantro to the end of the cooking process will not only add color but flavor to your beans.

Serve with white rice, or mixed rice and your favorite meat or salad. Enjoy!

 TIPS*** You might have noticed that I don't use salt in my beans, remember that canned beans and Sazon contain salt, plus when you make your rice you will add salt as well, so by cutting the salt from my beans not only is it healthier for me, but also for my family that suffer from heart problems. Another tip, when stirring your beans make sure to use a wooden, plastic or rubber spoon or spatula, you don't want to use metal because it tends to harden the beans during the cooking process and turn them a darker color. If you have children or picky adult eaters that don't like to find vegetables in their beans (pumpkin) you can use a grater and grate the pumpkin instead, when cooking it will break down and thicken your sauce, this way they still eat their veggies without seeing them on their plate, also use a cheesecloth and put onion, pepper and garlic together, tied with a string to the pot handle for easy removal if you are not planning on eating them. If you or  your family don't like seeing cilantro pieces in your beans, leave it whole and add in the final 5 minutes of cooking, than remove before serving.