Black bean and corn skillet
Black beans, sweet corn, peppers and tomatoes with green chiles simmered in one pan and blanketed with melted cheese, scooped up with tortilla chips for a 25-minute dinner.
- 25 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $2.44 a serving
- 650 calories
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 25 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1½ cups frozen corn
- 1 can diced tomatoes and green chiles, not drained
- 1 lime, halved
- 1 cup Mexican blend cheese
- 6 oz tortilla chips
- ¼ cup sour cream (optional)
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp salt
Each serving has about 650 calories, 26 g protein, 86 g carbs and 24 g fat, and costs about $2.44 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No black beans? Pinto beans or kidney beans work.
- No frozen corn? Canned corn works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No Mexican blend cheese? Shredded cheddar or cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No sour cream? Plain Greek yogurt works.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Heat the oil in a large with a lid over medium heat. Add the onion and pepper and cook, stirring, 5 to 6 minutes, until soft.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Stir in the garlic, chili powder and cumin and cook 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Add the beans, corn, Rotel with its juice and salt. 6 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until most of the liquid is gone.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 7 min
Dolly’s tip: It’s ready when a spoon dragged through leaves a path you can see the pan in.Take it off the heat, squeeze in half the lime, and scatter the cheese over the top.
Cover for 2 to 3 minutes, until the cheese .
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Timer: 2 min
Serve straight from the pan with tortilla chips for scooping, sour cream, cilantro and the rest of the lime.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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