What to use instead of black beans
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
Advertisement
Whole beans that hold their shape in a bowl or a stew
A thick dark skin holds the bean together through a long simmer, so it stays intact in a feijoada instead of dissolving into the pot.
Canned black beansRan out
1 15 oz can, drained, per 3/4 cup dried, added in the last 15 min
Softer and already salted, and they break up if you stir hard. Nothing you can do to get the firmness back.
Pinto beansRan out
1:1 by volume dried, same cooking time
Thinner skin, so they go creamier and break down more. The pot liquor is tan rather than black.
Red kidney beansRan out
1:1 by volume dried, 15 min more
Firmer and sweeter with a mealier interior. They hold shape better than black beans do in a taco soup.
Black-eyed peasRan out
1:1 by volume dried, 25 min less
Cook far faster and taste earthier and greener. They go from firm to blown out in about ten minutes, so watch them.
What doesn't work: Lentils. They have no skin worth speaking of and they cook in twenty minutes, so in a feijoada or a burrito bowl they collapse into thick gravy long before the rest of the pot is done and you have nothing to bite.
Mashable starch binding a patty or a spread
The starch inside the bean acts as the glue once it is mashed, so the patty holds together with very little added binder.
Pinto beansRan out
1:1 by volume
Creamier and mashes smoother, which makes a softer patty. Pale tan rather than dark.
ChickpeasRan out
1:1 by volume, plus 1 tbsp extra liquid per cup
Drier and grainier, so the patty is crumblier and needs the extra liquid or an egg. Nuttier flavour.
Red kidney beansRan out
1:1 by volume
Mash to a stiffer paste that holds a patty well. Sweeter and the colour goes brick red.
What doesn't work: Canned beans mashed straight from the tin without drying them out first. There is far too much water, so the patty will not hold together on the spatula and it steams in the pan rather than crusting. Spread them on a sheet and dry them in a 350F oven for 15 min first.
Cooking liquor that turns black and thickens the pot
Anthocyanins from the skins and starch from the beans dissolve into the water, which is what colours the rice in moros y cristianos and gives black bean soup its body.
Canned black beans, undrained, with some mashed back inRan out
1 15 oz can including its liquid, plus 1/2 cup of the beans mashed and stirred back
Thinner and greyer than a real pot liquor, and salted, so taste before seasoning. Mashing beans back in is what recovers the body.
Dried black turtle beans cooked with the soaking waterRan out
Soak overnight, cook in the same water, no draining
Darkest liquor and most flavour. It also keeps the oligosaccharides that the soaking water was supposed to remove.
What doesn't work: Canned beans rinsed under the tap and then expected to blacken the rice. The colour and the starch were both in the liquid that went down the sink, and moros y cristianos made that way comes out grey with the beans sitting separately in it.