Black beans are very rich in magnesium, a very beneficial mineral and they make a delicious warm salad in about five minutes. It is a wonderful menu item on a day when you are home-bound by a snow blizzard as you don’t really need to get to the grocery store to gather ingredients.

Black Bean salad as garnish to Roast Duck with turnips

For two large portions, almost meal size, I drained and rinsed a can of black beans. Then I sauteed half a sliced onion with olive oil in a frying pan with a diced pepper. Any colour or a mix will work equally well. After about 3 minutes on medium/high heat and constant stirring, add the beans for another 2 minutes on medium and stop stirring. The black bean will get mushy quickly, so wait until you are ready to eat to add them. Before turning the heat off add one tbsp Dijon, three tbsps cider vinegar or lemon juice or lime juice and sprinkle with cilantro or parsley. Salt to taste, remembering that canned beans are usually pretty salty.

Black beans contain 120 mg of magnesium per cup. Refer to the WHFoods newsletter for the nutrition benefice of eating black beans.

Rinsing the canned beans  is highly recommended as it makes them much crispier but also reduces the flatulence effects and removes some of the “bad carbs”.