Kitchen Secrets with Our Cuban Chef – Frijoles Negros
If there is one pot that defines Cuban home cooking, this is it. Frijoles negros are on the table at almost every meal, spooned over white rice, next to roast pork, or eaten on their own with a piece of bread.
A good pot of Cuban black beans is not soupy and it is not a paste. The broth should be thick enough to coat rice without flooding the plate, dark and glossy, with a faint sweetness behind the garlic. Getting there is mostly patience.
This is the recipe our kitchen runs on.
Beans, rice and Cuban history
Black beans grew in Mesoamerica for thousands of years before Spanish ships carried them across the Caribbean. Rice arrived by a different route, brought to the region through Spanish and later Asian trade. Put together on one plate, they became the foundation of Cuban eating.
Combined in the same pot the dish takes another name: moros y cristianos, Moors and Christians, a reference to the centuries of Muslim and Christian rule in Spain. Cooked separately and served side by side, they are simply arroz con frijoles.
Either way the sofrito is the constant. Onion, green pepper and garlic softened in oil is the starting point of most Cuban dishes, and it is where the flavour of these beans is actually built.
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried black beans, picked over and rinsed
- 10 cups water
- 1 whole green bell pepper, halved and seeded
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 large white onion, finely diced
- 1 green bell pepper, finely diced
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Salt and black pepper to taste
How to make Cuban Black Beans (Frijoles Negros)
- Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water, or use the quick method: bring them to a boil, turn off the heat and let them sit covered for one hour. Drain either way.
- Put the drained beans in a heavy pot with the 10 cups of water, the halved green pepper and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then lower to a bare simmer and cook uncovered for about 90 minutes, until the beans are soft. Do not salt them yet.
- While the beans cook, make the sofrito. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the diced onion and diced pepper for 8 to 10 minutes, until fully soft and just starting to colour.
- Add the garlic, cumin and oregano and cook one more minute, stirring, until fragrant.
- Fish the halved pepper and the bay leaves out of the beans and discard them. Scoop out one cup of beans, mash them, and stir them back in. This is what thickens the broth.
- Stir the sofrito into the pot along with the vinegar and sugar. Season with salt and pepper.
- Simmer uncovered for another 30 minutes, stirring now and then, until the liquid turns thick and glossy and coats a spoon. Taste and adjust the salt and vinegar before serving.
Chef’s notes
- Salt goes in at the end. Adding it early keeps the bean skins tough no matter how long you cook them.
- The whole green pepper simmering in the pot is a Cuban habit worth keeping. It perfumes the broth without leaving pieces behind.
- The vinegar and sugar at the end are not optional. They are what separates Cuban black beans from every other black bean.
- They taste better the next day. Make them ahead when you can.
Serving and keeping
Serve the beans over hot white rice with a thin slice of raw onion on top. Roast pork, fried plantains or a fried egg turn it into a full meal.
They keep five days in the fridge and freeze well for three months. The flavour deepens overnight, so leftovers are genuinely better than the first serving.
Prefer to let us cook?
We make cuban black beans (frijoles negros) fresh every day at our kitchen on 5555 S 78th St in Tampa. You can order Black Beans for pickup, or browse the full Cuban menu and skip the line.
