As a Caribbean girlie (techincally? I live in mainland venezuela idk if i really count) the idea that there's people in the world eating canned beans keeps me up at night. I've tried canned black beans and they're not good! Listen I know this recipe is time consuming but it's so worth it... Hear me out.

Makes enough servings to last a week in a 2-person household
Ingredients:
1 kg of dried black beans
3 tbsp of salt
1 tbsp of baking soda
1 onion
6 cloves of garlic
4 sweet peppers (or 1 bell pepper if you don't have these)
1 green onion
1 leek
2 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp of oregano
1 handful of cilantro
More salt and pepper to taste

The night before you make this, soak the beans in enough water to cover them and add your tablespoon of salt and baking soda. mix and let sit covered overnight. This makes them soften quicker and they also make you less gassy.

When you're ready to cook them, strain and rinse them. Add more water back to the pot, again, enough to cover it, and let them cook with medium heat until they soften. This will take an hour or so. You can also put them inside a slow cooker or pressure cooker if you have one. Personally, I do this step in my rice cooker because it's huge.

When they're finally soft, we're going to make the sofrito to give them flavor. Dice the onion, garlic and peppers, chop the green onion and leek, and throw all of it in a pan with plenty of oil. let them soften and get translucent. I like to throw in the cumin at this stage too so it gets toasty and releases more flavor. When it's fragrant, add all of this to the pot of beans and stir.

Add the remaining 2tbsp of salt, the pepper, oregano. Adjust as needed. Turn up the heat and let it cook until it thickens up a little. But not too much!! You want them to be soupy!!

Turn off the heat, chop the cilantro, and add it to the pot. Serve with rice.