Sos Pwa Nwa (Black-Bean Sauce)
Updated March 5, 2021

- Total Time
- 2 hours (mostly unattended)
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1tablespoon olive oil
- 1small onion, chopped
- 2garlic cloves, chopped
- 2scallions, chopped
- 1cup dried black beans, rinsed
- ½cup coconut milk
- ½tablespoon unsalted butter
- ½tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- ½chicken bouillon cube
- Salt, to taste
- ½teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onion, garlic and scallions until golden, about 8 minutes. Add the beans and 5 cups of water. Bring the water and beans to a boil over medium-high heat, covered, then boil until the beans are soft, about 1½ hours. (This may take longer depending on your beans.) Add water occasionally to keep the beans submerged, if necessary; keep an eye on them, as you may need to add a fair amount of water, depending on your beans and how tight your pot lid is.
- Step 2
In a blender, purée the beans and any water left in the pot with an additional 1¾ cups water until very smooth. Force the purée through a fine strainer.
- Step 3
Return the bean purée to the pot over medium-low heat. Stir in the coconut milk, butter, parsley, bouillon cube, salt to taste and black pepper. Cook the bean purée, stirring occasionally, until it’s the consistency of a rich gravy. (Adjust with water if necessary.)
Private Notes
Comments
You could speed this up considerably using canned black beans.. in which case watch the salt and probably omit the chicken cube. I have always found black beans very difficult to cook... but for a steady boil and where you don't have to watch constantly
, I use a rice cooker.
Exactly what I planned to write if you hadn't beaten me to it (especially for those of us who own neither a rice cooker nor a slow cooker). Two suggestions: Rinsing the canned beans not only removes the nasty "glop" they're packed in but a lot of the saltiness as well; and a squirt of fresh lime juice brightens up the flavor considerably.
ALso: Never feel you can only cook black beans if you remembered to soak them the night before. Cook from totally dry, they don't actually take much longer and have a better texture.
to make it totally vegan I used Trader Joes Vegan Not Chicken Seasoning and no butter...perfect!
I don't mind turning my kitchen into a disaster zone and spending over an hour cleaning when the recipe is worth it. However, these beans weren't so extraordinary to justify the pots, blender, pressure cooker, and strainer that all had to be cleaned by the time I had the bean gravy. Next time, I will take a cheaters way out, and just give a pot of beans a zap with an immersion blender and then add half a can of coconut milk.
Do you use both white and green parts of the scallions?
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