Step 1 In a colander, rinse the beans and put them in a large stock pot or dutch oven. Add in 5 cups of water. Add in the contents of prep bowl "A" - half of the rough chopped onion and 3 sliced garlic cloves.

Step 2 Set the heat to high to bring the pot to a moderate boil and boil for about 10 minutes. Turn down to a simmer and simmer for about 2 hours (i.e.: until the beans are edible, but still more firm than you would consider to be "done").

Step 3 Use a separate skillet to meat up the miso on high heat for about 5 minutes. Stir the miso constantly to break it up to a viscous paste and prevent excessive sticking or burning. Add all of prep bowl "B" (the other half of the chopped onion, minced garlic, the chopped tomato, cilantro, and salt) and cook for 5 more minutes.

Step 4 Stir in the contents of the skillet to the pot of beans. Cook until the beans have an enjoyable texture, about 30-45 more minutes.

Step 5 Now the most important step, taste the beans! This step is important because different brands of miso will have differing levels of salt, and the acidity the tomatoes bring will vary depending on the kind/ripeness of tomatoes. Consider the balance of salt and acid. If needed, add some salt and stir in well - taste again in 5 minutes to allow the salt to fully disperse. If some acid is needed, add in some citrus juice - lime or lemon for a more neutral taste, or grapefruit juice which can add some interesting fruitiness/bitterness along with acid. Take the adjustments slowly and allow them to meld before tasting! Once you go overboard with salt or acid, you can’t take it back.

To Serve You can serve the beans directly from the pot, or move to a serving vessel. Garnish with some chopped cilantro leaves if you'd like.

This is a vegan riff on charro (cowboy) beans, a bean dish typically flavored with pork (i.e.: chopped bacon). The magic ingredient here is miso, which imparts a healthy dose of umami and salt. It doesn’t taste exactly like bacon, but you won’t miss the meat and most folks that I’ve served these beans to are genuinely surprised to find out that they are vegan. Sure, miso is hardly a traditional Mexican ingredient, but miso is readily available and ultimately we’re after flavor over authenticity. Also be aware - in order to stay strictly vegan (if that’s important to you) you need to carefully examine the miso packaging at the store to ensure there aren’t any fish products included and hence you might need to go to an asian specialty store. You could also use Korean doenjang in place of miso to similar effect.

Cooking beans from dried is the only way to achieve a certain ‘al dente’ bean texture that many people prefer. If you find out you don’t like the firmness, you can always cook these beans a bit longer until very soft. Canned beans, while still very tasty, will always be soft and mushy and you can never restore any level of firmness. All that being said, If I’m being honest, I only cook beans from dried for large or important events due to the time investment. Any other time, I’m probably using canned beans. For canned beans, I have alternate cooking instructions that can get this dish done in 25 minutes or so.

These beans can be cooked a few days in advance and reheated before serving with no impact to the deliciousness. Many recipes call for soaking beans in water overnight. This can shorten the cooking time, but its an extra step you have to think about the day before that doesn’t buy you that much time in the end. You can also blend and ‘re-fry’ these beans in oil for some seriously delicious and creamy refried beans.