Main dish

Nigella's Cuban Black Beans recipe

Name: Nigella's Cuban Black Beans
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 40 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 2 onions, chopped (any colour); 6 cloves of garlic, chopped; 2 peppers, diced (any colour); 500g dried black turtle beans; 1 fresh red chilli, chopped; 2 tbsp cumin seeds; 1 tbsp chipotle paste (more if you like spice); black pepper; 2 fresh bay leaves; 1 litre water; salt

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Nigella's versatile and delicious Cuban Black Beans. Don't miss the caramelised garlic yoghurt recipe in the notes section.

Prep10m
Stand30m
Cook2h
Total2h 40m

nigella protein slow-cooker-compatible vegan vegetarian

Nigella's Cuban Black Beans, garlic yoghurt and quesadillas

Update

Phytohaemagglutinin (how do you even pronounce it?) is a toxin found in raw beans, particularly kidney and black beans. Slow cookers don’t always reach a high enough temperature to destroy it safely. To reduce the toxin to safe levels, according to Wikipedia:

Soak beans for at least 5 hours, discard the water, then boil in fresh water for 10 to 30 minutes at 100°C (212°F). Ten minutes destroys the toxin but thirty is safer, according to Karen Blakeslee at Kansas State University.
Or pressure cook unsoaked beans for 45 minutes at 15 psi (this comes from a single study and seems high to me).

The oven method in this recipe reaches a safe temperature on its own. If slow cooking, boil the beans first as above. For reference, the slow cook function on both of my Instant Pots won't reach the 100°C (212°F) boiling point.

Helen Rennie has a great video on cooking beans and has slow-cooked beans for years (not kidney beans). I suspect most guidelines are cautious to avoid accidentally poisoning someone. To be honest, I've slow-cooked black beans many times without boiling them first, but my slow cooker may be different to yours.

October 2026: Recent beans (used within a week of purchase) have refused to soften, even after an 8-hour slow cook. After several failures, I now pressure cook the beans, then slow cook. General guidance for a soft texture is 30-35 minutes for unsoaked beans and 10 minutes for soaked. Those numbers don't work for me. I go for 45 minutes unsoaked and 25 soaked, but it shifts depending on the beans and soaking time. I prefer them super soft with split skins over chalky. Reduce the cooking time to suit you, if you prefer more bite.

I’ve cooked Nigella's Cuban Black Beans many times since Simply Nigella (affiliate link) came out in 2015. Chop a couple of onions, peppers and some garlic; the rest is just assembly. What these beans need, though, is time. Either a couple of hours in a low oven or longer in a slow cooker.

One addition of mine is a tablespoon of chipotle paste. It gives the beans more depth and interest. I usually add two tablespoons but this adds heat so start with a tablespoon.

These beans are a great side dish, but I tend to make them as the main event. They make a great work lunch when paired with rice and yoghurt, and of all the meals I reheat, these beans attract the most compliments. One colleague swears they smell just like Dominos BBQ pizza.

My last batch went into quesadillas along with cheddar cheese and caramelised garlic yoghurt; it was a joy of a dinner. The garlic yoghurt recipe is in the notes.

For years I cooked these beans in my oven until a colleague lent me a slow cooker. The oven method starts by browning the onions first. For the slow cooker method, the raw ingredients go straight in. After seven hours in the slow cooker I swear I could taste the tang of raw onion. Once the beans were cooled and reheated, they tasted like their normal selves, but I would recommend browning the onions, regardless of which method you use.

Notes

Make sure to use relatively fresh black beans. I bought a 2.5kg bag that may as well have been rocks. Soaking, salting, boiling and slow cooking (for twelve hours) did nothing. Pressure cooking was the only fix. If you have similarly stubborn beans (and own a pressure cooker), add more liquid and pressure cook for at least 45 minutes (although my rock beans needed an hour). For me, the other methods were a waste of time and energy.

Caramelised garlic yoghurt

Slice the top off a bulb of garlic (take the very tips off the cloves and keep the base intact), then wrap in foil and bake for around 40 minutes in a 200°C (180°C fan) oven.

Like Nigella, I don’t turn on my oven just for the purpose of roasting garlic, but if I’m cooking something else I’ll often throw in a bulb at the same time. Adjust the cooking time to suit the temperature of the oven; you don’t need to be precise. Once the cloves have caramelised to a dark bronze colour, the whole bulb goes into the fridge where it keeps for a week. The squidgy cloves can be added to soups, stews, or, my favourite by a mile, Greek yoghurt.

400g of Greek yoghurt, 1 teaspoon of sea salt flakes and 5-6 roasted garlic cloves amount to a beautiful sauce that reminds me of the yoghurt you get in a really good kebab shop.

Recipe credit

Simply Nigella (affiliate link) by Nigella Lawson.

Recipe

Nigella's Cuban Black Beans

Prep10m
Stand30m
Cook2h
Total2h 40m

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 onions, chopped (any colour)
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 peppers, diced (any colour)
500g dried black turtle beans
1 fresh red chilli, chopped
2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp chipotle paste (more if you like spice)
black pepper
2 fresh bay leaves
1 litre water
salt

Method

It's difficult to give precise times for cooking beans because there are so many variables. I've successfully slow-cooked in 4 hours; sometimes 12 wasn't enough. I now pressure cook up front, and it still varies. If possible, factor in extra time for stubborn beans because I've been caught out more than I'd like to admit.

Slow cooker

Note: Nigella's recipe doesn't involve soaking or pre-cooking the beans.

If you have a multi-cooker, you can optionally skip soaking and pressure cook the beans straight away. Otherwise, soak 500g of dried black beans for at least 5 hours, then discard the water.
- Pressure cook: cover the beans with fresh water and pressure cook on high (max on my Pro Plus) for around 25 minutes if soaked, or 45 minutes if unsoaked. Natural release for at least 10 minutes, then drain. See the notes if they need longer.
- Boil (soaked beans only): fill a medium saucepan with boiling water, add the beans and rapidly boil for 30 minutes, then drain.
Brown 2 chopped onions in a pan for around 5-10 minutes, then add to a slow cooker along with 6 chopped cloves of garlic, 2 diced peppers, the cooked black beans, 1 chopped red chilli, 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon of chipotle paste, a pinch of black pepper, 2 fresh bay leaves and 1 litre of water.
Cook for 4-8 hours until the beans are soft, then add salt to taste.
Leave to stand for half an hour or, if you can, allow to cool, then reheat to eat.

Oven

Preheat your oven to 150°C (130°C fan).
Brown 2 chopped onions and 6 chopped cloves of garlic for around 5-10 minutes in a lidded saucepan that will fit into your oven. Add 2 diced peppers, 500g dried black beans, 1 chopped red chilli, 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon of chipotle paste, a pinch of black pepper and 2 fresh bay leaves to the pan. Add enough water to cover the ingredients by 3cm, then clamp the lid on the pan and place in the oven for 2 hours.
If you can, check on the beans halfway through, giving them a stir and adding more water if the level has fallen below the beans, but you can just leave them to cook and they should be fine.
When the beans are cooked, salt to taste. Leave to stand for half an hour or, if you can, allow to cool, then reheat to eat.