Make Ahead- Black Beans & Rice

Continuing with our make ahead theme, we made a big batch of black beans last week.  By now our freezer has a good assortment of stuff to re-heat.  This recipe is one of our go-to favorites.  Instead of serving it on top of white rice, we used brown rice and really didn't miss the white rice.

Ingredients:

2 large cans of black beans (preferably low sodium), don't rinse
1 package of Polish kielbasa
2 large Spanish, yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves of chopped garlic
1/2 cup of water
2 bay leaves
Salt & red pepper flakes to taste
Olive Oil

Browning the kielbasa

Start by browning the kielbasa in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Once they are browned, remove from pot, leaving behind any oil.  Add the chopped onions and garlic.  Cook for up to 45 minutes, or until completely caramelized.

Onions and garlic caramlized

Blending everything

Once pureed

Next, add one can of the black beans to the vegetable mixture and stir.  Using an immersion blender or food processor, blend until it's a puree.  Then, add the other can, bay leaves, seasoning, and sausage back into the pot.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a low simmer.  The longer it cooks, the better it will be.  Delicious as leftovers.  Just the other day, I took it out of the freezer and had the most delicious lunch.  It's good as is, and even better over some rice.