Trying to Eat Cheap: A Month of Dinners, Day 3—Aduki Huevos Rancheros

Here's tonight's dinner--huevos rancheros made with aduki beans. Basically it's aduki beans cooked with vegetables, then refried with some eggs and cheese and served over corn tortillas with salsa. This photo doesn't have the salsa yet--I like to have that on the table so people can add their own.


The recipe below serves 8, but I made a smaller version for tonight. Let's see: 6 eggs is about $2.50, the bean ingredients were probably $3, we maybe used another $3 of shredded cheese and salsa. So looks like another dinner for under $10--I'm doing OK so far! One further note on aduki beans--not only are they cheap, they don't require any soaking and seem far easier on the digestive system than larger beans.

Aduki Huevos Rancheros

2 cups aduki beans
1 piece kelp
6 cups water
1 large yam or 1 cup cubed butternut squash
2 Tbsp vegetable oil or lard
1 Tbsp chili powder (at least)
8 eggs
1 cup shredded cheddar
1 jar favorite salsa
1 package small corn tortillas
tabasco sauce

Step 1: Prepare the beans—you can do this a few days in advance and refrigerate them. Wash the beans and pick out any strange-looking ones. Put them to boil with the kelp and 4 cups of water. Simmer on low-heat, using a heat disperser under the pot. Stir occasionally. After about an hour, add the yam or squash and 2 more cups of water. Continue to simmer until yam or squash is tender and most of water is absorbed (about another hour). If the beans are starting to dry out during cooking, add more water. Cool and refrigerate.

Step 2: Heat the tortillas as described on the package. For mine, I wrapped them all in foil and put them in the oven while I cooked the eggs.

Step 3: Refry the beans. Heat the oil or lard in a large skillet (mine is over a foot in diameter). Add the bean/yam mixture and the chili powder and stir together. Use a potato masher or just a regular spoon to mush everything up. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until most of the liquid is gone (when you stir, the beans ooze back into the holes slowly).

Step 4: Break 8 eggs into the pan. My beans were still runny enough that I couldn't really make "pockets" to hold the eggs, but the weight of the egg made its own pocket. I found that 1 egg in the middle with 7 around it fit perfectly in my pan. Cover and cook for at least 5 minutes--until yolks are firm when pressed from the top. Sprinkle with cheese and cover for another couple minutes until cheese melts.

Step 5: To serve, put 2 warm tortillas on each plate and scoop an egg and the surrounding beans onto each tortilla. People can add their own salsa and tabasco sauce to the top. Serves 4.