Beans – Frijoles

Beans are a staple in Mexico. Beans and tortillas; lots of both.

At 12 to 18 pesos per kilo in local stores they do indeed go a long way. Folks who live back in the hills can grow their own or collect them from the fields by hand gleaning after the commercial harvest is complete.

Budget conscious families will buy a sack of them after the local harvest.

This meal is often referred to as la comida de los pobres (meal of the poor). It is dead simple to prepare and very tasty. The beans are cleaned, soaked and boiled for a couple of hours depending on desired firmness.

For the Mexican palate that firmness is before the shell cracks but after it can be easily crushed between your fingers.

Only after boiling salt is added to taste. That’s all there is to it. No onions, tomatoes or seasoning of any kind. The water is not changed at any point except for washing them originally.

The type of bean is important. I am not sure what the local bean is called but white small navy beans (frijoles blancos pequeños) taste almost identically to the meal I enjoyed.

The result is called frijoles en olla (beans in a pot). To make it truly the meal of the poor you would want to serve it with some form of nopales and of course tortillas.

a bit of cheese or crema may be too luxurious but a nice touch.

Clean your beans!

Even when bought in a bag in the supermarket beans contain a surprising amount of foreign matter:

It is important to sort and clean your beans or you could easily wind up serving twigs and some very unappetizing specimens or even worse crack a tooth on a small stone:

Beans are high in fibre, protein and carbohydrates: