Cuban Black Beans with Butternut-Carrot Purée

Guess who's back... Maybe we should make this a thing, to post something once a year when our blogging-conscience gets too bad. Or maybe not, it probably wouldn't be such a successful project. Anyhow, times have changed! I (Hanna) have now moved across the big ocean to the United States of A! To be precise, I now live in New York, one of the most inspiring cities to be vegan in! The possibilities here are endless. Walking into grocery stores is like walking into an enchanted world filled with tofu, tempeh, nut butters and other fun vegan food. You can buy local produce at the farmer's market, even though you're living in one of the world's craziest cities. It down right wonderful!

Moving to the Big Apple has also given me a lot more spare time. And as a kind of New Year's resolution I figured I could spend som of that time sharing my vegan experiences. Although I've decided that some things are going to change. I'll get into the details of that later though, my new blogging mentality. It'll be a separate post.

But here's the first recipe of the year for you! Cuban black beans with butternut squash and carrot purée. The butternut and carrots are cooked long and slow to really bring out their sweetness and then mixed into a heavenly smooth purée. The beans are mashed with spices and it all comes together to a nice and hearty dish, perfect for cold weather! I served it with a simple kale salad (as I do with most things nowadays), dressed with a kind of avocado-lime-sesame dressing. It all ended up being a very nice dinner! 

For 2-3 people (depending on how hungry you are!)

Start making the purée and while the vegetables are cooking you can start the beans. Let them reduce while you finish the purée. 

For the purée:

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large clove of garlic, sliced 

4 average size carrots, chopped into 1 cm cubes

½ butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1 cm cubes

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp maple syrup

Heat up the oil in a saucepan and add the garlic. Sautéed the garlic until it's slightly roasted and smells wonderful. Add the carrots and squash and fry for another minute or two. Add enough water to cover the vegetables bring to a boil. Once it's cooking lower the heat, put the lid on and let it simmer until the vegetables are tender. 

Once the vegetables are done, remove the lid and add the salt. Continue simmering them until nearly all the liquid has evaporated. Mix with an immersion blender and stir in the maple syrup.

For the beans:

1 leek, chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 carrot, finely diced

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cumin

1 can of black beans (400 g)

2 tsp sriracha sauce (or your favorite chili sauce)

Blackpepper

A bunch of greens, such as spinach, chard or in my case beet greens, chopped

A sprinkle of smoked paprika

1 lime, zest and juice

Oil

Gently sauté the leek, carrot and garlic in the oil until they're nice and soft, about 5-8 minutes. Add cumin, salt, pepper and smoked paprika and sauté for another minute. Add the beans together with the sriracha, chopped greens and 5 dl of water. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered while you mash upp the beans as much as possible. You might want to cover the pan in the beginning in order for the greens to wilt. Once it's all nice, mushy and reduced, taste for more salt, pepper and spices and then add the zest and juice from the lime. 

Serve the beans and purée with a nice salad, and maybe some extra lime wedges to squeeze on top of it all. I made a simple kale salad with a dressing made from lime juice, vinegar, sesame oil and som left over guacamole. The tartness of the dressing and crispiness of the kale was a nice complement to the rest!