I'm a huge fan of red beans. And when you add a little smoke to them, I'll about hit the ceiling on that one. My wife and I were getting our week ready for the busy hustle and bustle of managing our businesses, client crunch time and cutting down on the time it takes to automate our meals for the week, while giving enough room for variety.

Aside from the rigorous duties of parenthood, we have a lot of projects coming to a close this week, new ones beginning and had to make sure that we didn't take any more time in the kitchen than was absolutely necessary, so we used our pre-prep method to get our healthy fast food process underway. This reduces our time cooking from hours down to minutes while preserving the nutrients of our meals and cutting down on our spending. [Truly the best of all worlds.]

We had four different types of beans we cooked up, but we took our red beans to the plate for this meal. I call it the easy smoky red bean recipe, because it really is easy, but you wouldn't know it by the flavor. I'll let you judge for yourself, but I'm convinced that you'll be convinced that it'll be, if not the best, the closest thing to the best that you've ever tasted and in about 10 minutes [maybe even less]. You just want to make sure that you go through the pre-prep method for you beans first, whether it be the day of or weeks in advance. You just want to make sure that you have natural, organic beans cooked, on hand and ready to go if you want your process to be a short one.


Here's what you'll need:

Easy Smoky Red Bean Recipe

Equipment
1 medium to large cutting board
1 chef's knife
1 large skillet
1 spatula [I prefer wooden]

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large red onion [diced]
1 tsp [or to taste] sea salt
2 dried chipotle peppers [chopped/minced]
7 cloves garlic [crushed and coarsely chopped]
2 cups cilantro [chopped]
1 tsp vegetarian bouillon powder
4 cups precooked red beans

Directions
Step 1. Heat your skillet and add your oil, onions and salt and saute until translucent.
Step 2. Add you chipotles, toss and then add your garlic. Toss again.
Step 3. Once garlic gives off its fragrance, add your bouillon and cilantro and stir, making sure to evenly incorporate it all together, then add your beans with a little of its liquid. Toss, stir and heat through.

You're done!

The flavor's amazing. The heat is inviting and the smokiness adds to the overall nuances of the dish. You should love this. If, however, you find that heat and smoke is not your thing, you can omit any one of these ingredients and it'll still taste great, depending on what your likes are.

I hope you enjoy!

As always, it's been my pleasure sharing with you this healthy and quick recipe. Until next time...