Lunch Four

Sweet Potato Vermicelli, Black Beans, and Cilantro

I threw this dish together with what I had in the fridge.   I would have added avocados, if I had them.   It turned out really good, although many of you will want to add a little bit of hot sauce.   Here is what I did, in the order that I did it. 

• I chopped up a yellow onion and fried it in my cast iron frying pan with some olive oil. 
• I opened a can of black beans, and drained and rinsed the beans.
• When the onions were translucent, and starting to brown, I added the beans and about two tablespoons of lime juice.   I left them to fry at a medium high heat until all the liquid had evaporated. 
• I cut a zucchini into half medallions and dumped it on top of the bean mixture, and then added some salt on top of the zucchini.  I didn't stir it, I just turned the heat down to low, put a lid on, and left the zucchini to steam. 
• I soaked and then spun, an entire bunch of cilantro in a salad spinner.   I find cilantro often has a lot of grit on it.   Then, I roughly chopped it up.  I also sliced up an entire bunch of green onions.  
• I brought a large pot of water to boil, and then gently pushed about half the package of the noodles below to surface of the water to boil for six minutes.  I find these noodles at Independent, but you can find lots of varieties of bean or starch vermicelli like this at other stores.   Don't make the mistake I've made in the past and push the noodles in too aggressively, they'll splash boiling water back up at your face!   Once they were done, I drained them and added about a teaspoon of cumin powder and about four tablespoons of tamari sauce.   
• Last but not least, I mixed everything together in a big bowl.  I broke up the noodles a bit, so they'd mix better with the veggies.