Sweet Black Beans with Fried Pineapple Kale Rice

This blog is becoming a collection of my favorite things to cook and eat. I've thought about writing a cookbook, but that was too overwhelming and mysterious a project. Essentially, I'm giving you a cookbook here, but you have to be patient and wait for the recipes to appear one at a time. Who knows - maybe one day it will magically find itself in a printed version. Until then, here's my next offering. I posted this recipe on my other blog a while back, but it belongs here too. Enjoy some Sweet Black Beans, which I think are especially good with Fried Pineapple Kale Rice.

Sweet Black Beans

Cook some dried black beans with onion and garlic in the water, OR open a can or two of beans.

Drain off excess cooking water (or drain and rinse canned beans)

Season with:

ketchup

maple syrup

tamari

salt & pepper

sweet smoked paprika

I like to make them nice and saucy. They taste kind of like baked beans, but so much better.

Fried Pineapple Kale Rice sounds weird, but it's amazing.

Chop a bunch of curly green kale

Saute quickly in coconut oil, with canned or fresh pineapple chunks.

Add rice and cook a minute or two longer. Kale should still be bright green and crunchy.

Drizzle in a generous splash of tamari to taste, and cover to steam for a couple of minutes.

Serve with Sweet Black Beans. Yum!

This is easy if you have some leftover rice from another meal. Alternately, make the Pineapple Kale separately, and serve it with the beans over a fresh batch of rice.