Great black beans! Very easy to make, and smells up the house nicely. I would use a little less pepper next time - was a tad too spicy for me. Make ahead - these were SO much better the next day. Thanks for the recipe!

totally worth five stars, and i don't usually like black beans! But my boyfriend wanted to try some because we have been doing weight training and black beans have so much fiber without the load of carbs in bread. we both don't like peppers or pimentos, so i just left them out, and i used canned beans instead of dry. The trick to canned beans is to pick the low-sodium variety with the most spices already in it. (More flavorful beans, the usual is salt sugar and dehydrated onion, but if you can find canned beans with more than that they're even better!) I used two cans, drained, and DIDN'T ADD THE 5 CUPS OF WATER!!!! this is very important, as a few reviers have mentioned their beans came out watery. The water is to soak the dry beans in, and then to be drained off. If you need some extra liquid while cooking the beans, add a little chicken broth. (Or vegetable if you're vegetarian) :) It turned out -so- good, i'll be making them often! Thanks :)

First off: this recipe does NOT work as written with canned beans. I used three 15-oz. cans of beans and only 4 c. of water, and it was still way too watery. I had to simmer it forever to even get it close to not looking like soup. Now, perhaps this isn't the case when you use regular beans, and/or perhaps this is how soupy it's supposed to be. Regardless, next time I'll use at the most 2 c. of water, if not less. Also, this could use a few more spices; I increased the black pepper and added cayenne pepper.

I'm not a picky person. These don't taste like the black beans I had all the time when I lived in Miami. These are very sweet, which I don't like when it comes to black beans. I don't like throwing food away, so I'm going to add hot sausage to it and hope that makes the taste better. 8/12/06 - UPDATE: I crumbled up some Jimmy Dean Hot sausage, browned it, and added it to these beans. WOW. huge difference in taste. It was actually good after that.

These beans were a perfect side to Tinga poblana de pollo. They have just a hint of sweetness and complemented the spicy chicken dish beautifully. I made them a day ahead because I think that beans, like chili, always taste better the next day. For those who had issues using canned beans, dried beans are healthier, tastier, and have a much better texture than canned. You do not need to soak overnight. Boil the beans in water for two minutes and then let them sit for one hour. Drain, rinse, and continue on with the recipe. I will use these as a vegetarian filling for tortillas, as well as a side.

This is totally awesome!! I warmed some up at the office one day. The aroma made EVERYONE request a copy of the recipe!! We've had it over rice, with fresh bread, over pasta...even my 5-year old loved it! Scrump-dilly!

We love this recipe. The smell is intoxicating while its cooking. My husband and I have made ourselves sick because we couldn't stop eating it one night. As far as modifications, I have never actually added the pimentos, we never have them. Sometimes I'll sub with roasted red pepper, but I usually don't worry about it. I also cook this in a pressure cooker for about 25 minutes. We never have added the toppings, and we like it on brown rice. Thanks for a great recipe.

Good basic recipe, definitely not spicy enough for my family. If I make again, would have to add some chili powder, hot peppers, hot sauce, etc.

Very good. Based on other reviews & what I ate a cuban restaurant, I left out the tomato paste and sugar. Even my picky 7 year old liked them. I'm not a fan of green bell peppers, but they blend well once cooked in this recipe. Different than our normal black beans & rice with cumin/cilantro from Allrecipes.

Thanks for the great recipe! This was pretty easy to make and very cheap as well. Everything I needed was found easily at the Mexican grocery three blocks away, which saved me a trip to the supermarket. I may make it again in the future with some spicy sausage and omitting some of the oil to compensate. I didn't have a problem with the vinegar making the beans hard because I soaked the beans for about 18 hours. However, the beans were tender but not as smooth as they would be if I had used canned beans, so I will probably stir in the vinegar toward the end of cooking next time.