My Dominican Food Blog

This red beans recipe is one of my favorites, it's so tasty. Dominican stewed beans or habichuelas guisadas dominicanas in spanish, combined with white rice and chicken (as you can see in my upper banner image) are called "The Dominican Flag" of our cuisine, mainly because this is the official lunch in every dominican home and also because of its colors: Red, white and brown.

Ingredients:

- 1 canned (15.5oz) Goya small or kidney beans
- 1/4 red bell pepper, chopped into small pieces
- 1/4 green bell pepper, chopped into small pieces
- 1/4 white onion, finely chopped
- 1 minced big garlic clove or 2 small
- 1/2 chicken flavor bouillon cube (Maggi or Knorr, in the hispanic section of your supermarket)
- 1 or 2 tablespoons tomato paste or sauce (I use Ragu sauce flavored with meat, I like the flavor and has veggies in it)
- Salt to taste
- Ground oregano to taste
- Complete seasoning to taste (I use Badia Complete Seasoning, but you can use any seasoning you want, just make sure it doesn't contain salt)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cans of water
- 1 1/4 cups water

Directions:

Ok! Now let's cook this stewed red beans recipe. In a medium saucepan, boil the beans with 1 1/2 cans of water (measured it with the same can of beans) in medium heat. Add a bit of each of the chopped vegetables and keep the rest. Stir and boil, stirring constantly until almost all the water has been consumed.

A great idea (and that's what I always do) is to have all the sofrito ingredients ready on a plate. The vegetables, the tomato sauce, the chicken bouillon and the spices. That way you won't waste time looking for this or that ingredient.

In a small saucepan or frying pan heat the olive oil on medium low heat. Saute the chopped vegetables. Add the 1/2 chicken flavor bouillon cube, the tomato sauce and the spices. Stir well. Don't use the salt yet, we'll need it later. Low the heat and saute for 2 minutes.

Pour this sofrito over the red beans (as I did in the picture on the right). Add 1 1/4 cups water and stir. Taste with a tablespoon and if you think they need some salt, go ahead and add it. But just a bit, you don't want your stewed beans to be salted. Taste again to see if they are ok.

Cook for 3 to 4 minutes and then turn off the heat. If you like the beans thicker, cook them for 5 to 6 minutes. But remember, and this is important, after turning off the heat, the cooking process continues. It means that if you let much of the water to consume and then remove from heat, after a while the beans will be very thick.

I don't like this recipe thick. I prefer to let my dominican stewed red beans with some of the water, that way when they cool down will be the way I like them. ;-))

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