I absolutely adore the combination of Cuban Black Beans with Chimichurri.  It's a meal I've been making for years. It's super healthy, packs a flavour punch and is super easy to prepare.....not to mention easy on the wallet. ​It's also somehow just really satisfying food. I feel like I'm treating myself when I eat this meal. You can serve the black beans over rice, or just mix roughly equal parts cooked rice and black beans together and serve it that way. I typically eat brown rice at home because it has more fiber and nutrients than white rice, plus it's delicious.

I like lots of chimichurri. If you are making side dishes that are also good with chimichurri you can just double the recipe I shared below. I ate my black beans and brown rice with oven roasted plantains that definitely want chimichurri for dipping, and I also made a simple fresh pineapple & avocado salad with a cumin lime vinaigrette, chili and mint. All three dishes compliment eachother beautifully. You really want to mix and match bites. I use my hands and pick up big pieces of pineapple or roasted plantain and scoop up the black bean & rice mixture with the chimi *SWOON*. I also added some pickled jalapenos on the side and just added a bit to different bites as well for added heat. DELISH!

Serves - 6 to 8
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​Ingredients:
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• 2 cups (1lb) dried black beans, soaked overnight
• 1 large sweet onion, small dice
• 1 green pepper, small dice
• 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp chile flakes
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• A few glugs of olive oil
• S&P
• Pinch of raw sugar

Method:
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1. Saute green pepper, onion & garlic in a bit of veg oil until softened. Season with S & P
2. Add garlic, oregano, cumin, & chile flakes. Cook another couple minutes. 
3. Add black beans (that have been soaked overnight and drained), 5 cups of water, and tomato paste. Bring to a simmer.
4. Simmer until beans are softened. You want the liquid to reduce while the beans are cooking. If you need to add more water because the beans need to cook longer and too much has evaporated, do that. 
5. Towards the end I add in a few glugs of olive oil the red wine vinegar & pinch of sugar. I like to let it hang out on the stove for a bit then I come back to it to adjust the seasonings. Salt & Pepper but also : If you want heavier cumin add more of that                                                                                 If you want it sweeter, you can do that too,                                                                                  If you need to spice it up, sriracha or sambal oelek works

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Ingredients: 
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• 1.5 cups cilantro (leaves and stems, packed)
• 1.5 cups parsley (leaves and stems, packed)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup veg oil (I used sunflower)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• sprinkle of chile flakes
• S & P

Method:

1. Blitz everything in a food processor except for the chili flakes (or also leave out the olive oil, then stir the olive oil in by hand after everything else is chopped up. 
2. Adjust seasoning to your taste. You can also stir in more oil /vinegar if you want your chimichurri to be thinner. Sometimes I want it that way. This version is on the thicker side. Both serve their purpose. 

DUMPLINGS 

The first part of this recipe is for the filling. I successfully made my own dumpling wrappers. But if you don't want to, just use store bought! These dumplings are delicious pan fried and dipped into your favourite sauce (I do like sweet chili!) or simmered in a brothy soup.  There is something really special about making dumplings. They are wholesome & delicious, definitely a labour of love. 

Yield: Enough filling for about 40 - 50 dumplings 

Filling Ingredients:
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• Extra Virgin Olive Oil for cooking veg
• 1 block firm tofu
• 1/2 cup dried mixed mushrooms, re hydrated and chopped ( will yield about 1/3 cup chopped)
• 1 cup shredded green or red cabbage
• 1/2 cup chopped radish
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh Ginger
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tsp guachjang paste
• 5 scallions chopped, (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Method:
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1. Preheat wok over medium heat and add a couple swirls of EVOO
2. Add Tofu, mushrooms, cabbage, radish, ginger & garlic to the pan and sautee everything together, breaking up the tofu. Everything should be softened but still a bit of texture to the cabbage. 
3. Add sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar & guachjang paste. Stir it around for another minute or so, taste to adjust any seasoning to your liking then cool mixture. 
4. Add cooled mixture in a couple batches to a food processor. Blitz mixture until everything is finely chopped. Refrigerate mixture until ready to form dumplings. Use store bought dough or homemade if you are up to the task!

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The thing with making a dough like this is unless you are weighing the flour and water, you will probably need to adjust the amounts a bit. This is intuitive for me because I know what dough should feel like. You can add a bit more water, then if it gets too sticky, you can dust with more flour. The dough should be a bit "tacky", but not sticky, not dry. 

The trick for rolling the dough is to let it rest for 30-60 minutes to become pliable. Once it has rested you don't want to knead it again before rolling it out. The gluten needs to be relaxed to be pliable. I use a large biscuit cutter to cut out my wrappers instead of rolling individual circles (so tedious). Then to reroll scraps, I bring the scraps together and knead it a bit, if it's not coming together easily because of the dusting of flour from rolling the first time, I just splash water on my hands and keep bringing it together, adding tiny amounts of water as needed. Once you have a dough ball formed you can let it rest for 30 minutes before re - rolling. 

Ingredients:

• 4 cups AP flour
• 1 cup of water (then probably more to incorporate all of the flour into the dough)

Method:

1. Add flour to a bowl (or check my video where I do this right on the counter) and stir while pouring in the water. You've added enough water when no flour remains on the sides or bottom of the bowl. 
2. Place dough on counter and knead until smooth, dusting with flour if it's really sticky, or a bit of water if it seems dry. Clean your hands off if you need to in between adjusting the amounts of ingredients. (see my video)
3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Let rest 15 - 30 min. Knead the dough again, use the same plastic to wrap it again. Let rest another 30 - 60 minutes.
4. Now the dough should be super soft.
5. It's easiest to roll the dough in sections, so divide it into 2 or 3 smaller pieces. Keep the ones you aren't working with wrapped up. 
6. Dust work surface and dough with flour, and roll thinly. (maybe as thick as a Canadian dime or quarter) Use a 3 inch circle biscuit cutter to make wrappers. See my notes above for re - rolling the dough. It's best to form your dumplings from your first section of rolled dough before moving onto the next, then they won't dry out. 

1. Place a dumpling wrapper in the palm of your hand, add 2-3 tsp of the filling in the center. 
2. fold the dough over the filling to make a half moon shape, pressing the dough together in the center first. There are different ways to complete the forming of the dumplings at this point. I've made a video to demonstrate. There's many resources online to create a variety of shapes! Most simply you can just make half moons and call it a day. Just make sure to press the dough together tightly so nothing leaks. 
3. Place formed dumplings onto a parchment lined baking sheet and dust with flour to prevent them from drying out as you go. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 3 T shaoxing cooking wine
• 2 tbsp sambal oelek
• 2 tbsp cornstarch + couple splashes water

Method:

1. Add everything to a pot except cornstarch slurry. 
2. Bring to a boil, then add your cornstarch mixed with a bit of water to the pot to thicken.
3. Cool & refrigerate before serving.