I love black beans.  It’s a total Costa Rican thing. From gallo pinto – the quintessential dish of the Country — to black bean sandwiches as a beach outing snack, Costa Rica is all about these delectable morsels.  And here’s the plus – black beans are super nutritious!

If you have the time and desire to cook the beans from scratch, here is a recent recipe from the NY Times on how to cook them – it’s pretty much my mom’s recipe too.

While fresh black beans taste a bit better than canned, I pretty much always use canned, so my recipe below is based on the canned variety.

What I always like to do is “re-fry” them (this works for both fresh and canned beans). This consists simply of drying the beans out a bit.  First, dice up some red onion (about a ¼ cup per serving of canned black beans) and sauté it in 1 tsp olive oil or Pam on medium heat.  Add the beans and mix until they are the consistency you like.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

What you do from here with the beans is up to you, but I suggest making a burrito.  Heat up a whole wheat tortilla, add the beans, a few avocado slices, lettuce, onion and a tiny bit of low- or fat free cheese and mmmmmm you will start speaking Spanish like it was first-nature!

From a taste and calorie standpoint, my favorite tortillas are the Mission 6” Fajita Carb Balance Whole Wheat Tortillas and South Beach Diet Whole Wheat Wraps, Made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  For this recipe, I use the South Beach variety.

Spice it up with some Tapatio sauce. I used to eat one of these every night for dinner for like 3 or more months straight.

Estimate of calories the way I make it (w/o olive oil)
1 whole-wheat tortilla – 110 cal, 3g fat, 5g protein, 8g fiber
½ cup canned black beans – 110 cal, 0g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber
1 oz non-fat feta cheese – 35 cal, 0g fat, 7g protein, 0 g fiber
1/4 avocado – 72 cal, 6.75 g fat, <1 g protein, 4g fiber
1 c. romaine lettuce – 8 calories, 0g fat, 0.6 protein, 1g fiber
¼ c. diced red onion – 12 cal, 0g fat, 0g protein, 0g fiber

Total stats: 347 calories, 9.75 g fat, 22.6 g protein, 19 g fiber

More healthy recipes using black beans from the NY Times:

• Black bean enchiladas (but substitute with low fat cheese and use less than directed)
• Black bean chili (but substitute with low-fat cheese)

Tags: Black beans, calories, Costa Rica, healthy food, healthy living, nutritional information, NY Times, Recipes