Citrus Chili Black Beans
Instant black beans woken up with orange, lime, and vinegar carried in a dropper bottle.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 116
- protein
- 20 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Bikepacking
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant black bean flakes | 3/4 cup | dehydrated refried-style, replaces two cans of cooked beans |
|---|---|---|
| Dried minced onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Chili powder | 1 tsp | |
| Ground cumin | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1/2 tsp | |
| Rubbed dried sage | 1/4 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried jalapeno flakes | 1/2 tsp | or a shake of chipotle powder |
| Orange drink powder | 1 tbsp | stands in for frozen juice concentrate |
| Lime juice powder or crystals | 1 tsp | |
| Rice wine vinegar | 1 tsp | dropper bottle |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Instant rice | 1/2 cup | optional, cook it first |
Method
- If you want rice, boil 250 ml of water, add the rice, cover, and let it sit off heat until it drinks the water. Tip it into your bowl or lid.
- Boil 500 ml of water. Pull the pot off the stove.
- Pour in the bean and spice premix a third at a time, stirring between pours. Lumps form if you dump it all at once.
- Cover and wait three minutes. It will keep thickening.
- Add the oil and the vinegar last, off heat. Stir and taste. More water if it went to paste, another pinch of salt if it went flat.
- Spoon it over the rice, or eat it straight out of the pot.
The original is a stovetop side dish built on canned beans. Cans are heavy and the acid comes from frozen juice concentrate, so both had to go. Dehydrated bean flakes rehydrate in three minutes with no simmer, and powdered orange and lime do the same job as the wet versions at a fraction of the weight.
The acid is the whole point. Beans and cumin alone are flat and muddy; the orange, lime, and vinegar cut through and make the spices read as separate things. Add all three off the heat, because boiling drives off the sharpness you carried them for. The oil goes in at the same time and does double duty as calories and as the thing that keeps the paste from setting into a brick.
Packing
Beans, spices, onion, orange powder, and lime powder all go into one freezer bag at home. Oil and vinegar ride in separate dropper bottles, upright, in a side pocket. Rice gets its own bag.
Variations
- Crush a handful of corn chips over the top for fat and crunch.
- A foil pouch of chicken stirred in at the end makes it a full dinner without rice.
- Swap the orange powder for a squeeze of an actual lime on night one, if you are willing to carry it.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/our-favorite-black-beans-recipe