Black Bean Chili

The Indians of America’s Southwest - the Zuni, Pueblo and Hopi - cultivated a large selection of beans, cross-breeding to produce a rainbow array of colours. One ancient dish the Indians prepared was cooked beans, pounded to a paste, patted into cakes then fried - much like the black bean cakes that were all the rage in recent years in California.

Black beans are adored through much of Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean as well - with their distinctive flavour and inky hue, the