Mexican Black Beans with Pork

Well, it may not come as a surprise that I enjoy cooking. I also enjoy cookbooks, but I am pretty contained when it comes to purchasing them. However, I had my eye on a couple when I discovered Barnes & Noble were having an online cookbook sale. Yippee!!!!! So I purchased both of them for less than the cost of one. Pretty fantastic, indeed. This crock pot recipe comes from one of my new cookbooks. It's titled Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. It wasn't a difficult decision to choose this as my first recipe. Mostly because it was the recipe that caught my eye in the store. I love black beans and I also enjoy pulled pork. Now, this dish isn't technically pulled pork but because of the cooking it can be pulled apart.

I have a weird thing about meat. I'm not morally opposed to eating it. It's just that sometimes meat grosses me out. And I generally don't enjoy cooking it. It's better for me to not see the starting product. When meat is pulled/shredded I tend to do better with it. Maybe because it seems less like it's starting point? Anyway, I know that I need to get over this meat issue because it's likely that the man I end up marrying will want to eat meat and at my last annual physical my bloodwork showed a trend towards anemia. (I realize I'm rambling about stuff you all don't care about, but it's my blog so you'll just have to deal with it. Or skip ahead. Do whatever you want. I'll never know.) This recipe was a good starting point for me. I had to handle to meat the trim fat and brown it a little, but then I was able to put it in the crock pot and ignore it until finished. Baby steps, you know.



1 lb boneless pork loin, trimmed of any fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
I couldn't find one less than 1.8 lbs, but with all the fat I cut off it worked out pretty well. I also cut it into more rectangular cuts for the shredded effect.)
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground coriander (I didn't have any, so I skipped it.)
Salt to taste (I hate that. It's not like I'm going to taste the raw meat. Sick)
1 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
Two 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
One 16-ounce can stewed tomatoes, coarse chopped, with their juice
2 cups water
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
(I've realized as I've typed this that I really didn't bother to read the recipe. I didn't rinse or drain my black beans or chop my tomatoes. Oh well. If you want to save a couple minutes, skip those steps. Your recipe will survive.)

1. Toss the pork with the chili powder, coriander, and salt until coated evenly. Heat in a large ungreased skillet over medium-high heat, then lightly brown the pork with the onion and garlic, stirring.

2. Transfer the pork mixture to the slow cooker, stir in the beans, tomatoes with their juice, and water, season with pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 8 to 9 hours. (From what I've been learning about pork over the last few weeks, it's a meat that tends to do better with longer cooking. If you're needing a fast recipe, pork probably shouldn't be your meat choice.)

3. Serve the beans and pork over steamed white rice. (I had brown rice, so I tossed it in our rice cooker. Delightful.)


This was soooooo good. Good grief. You have to try it. The other benefit of this recipe: it will keep your kitchen cooler this summer since you're using a crock pot. Glorious.