The beauty of cooking beans from scratch is that you’re left with two equally valuable end products: the tender beans themselves, but also the flavor packed broth that they’re cooked in. In celebration of Earth Month, we’ve set our intentions on making the best use of all our ingredients, read: making delicious, nutritious meals out of what would otherwise be cast aside. These beans, served in their inky broth, are a perfect example.

When cooking beans from scratch there’s a few fundamental tenets we swear by. First, soak your beans whenever possible. This provides for a quicker cooking time and helps to make the beans more easily digestible. We like to soak and cook our beans with kombu, a mineral rich seaweed celebrated for its ability to make a pot of beans even easier on the gut. We never skimp on a generous glug of olive oil and a heavy hand of salt added before the beans cook - this step ensures that both the beans and broth will be fully seasoned. The aromatics are flexible and can vary based on the bean you're cooking. For this particular pot, we lean on a richer, smokier flavor profile. Lastly, never underestimate the importance of a small but mighty splash of high-quality vinegar added to the pot once the beans have been taken off of the heat - this added dose of brightness helps to coax all of the flavors into balance.

We particularly love serving these beans with a sunny side up egg and a few sprigs of fresh cilantro, but the world is your oyster.

For the beans

• 1 bag SIMPLi Regenerative Organic Certified® Black Beans

• 2 pieces kombu seaweed

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 whole head of garlic, halved down the equator

• 2 shallots, halved

• 5-6 cilantro stems

• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• ⅓ cup SIMPLi Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 1½ tablespoons SIMPLi Peruvian Spice Salt Blend, plus more to taste

• A small splash sherry vinegar

To serve

• 1 egg per serving, preferably pasture raised, fried in olive oil till the whites are set and the yolk is runny

• A handful of cilantro

• Add the dry black beans and 1 piece of kombu to a large bowl, and cover with a generous amount of filtered water. Make sure that the beans are covered by at least twice their volume in water, as they’ll double in size as they soak. Set aside at room temperature (so long as your ambient room temperature isn’t particularly warm. If it is, place the beans in the fridge to soak) to soak for 8 hours.

• Strain and rinse the beans, then add them to a saucepan and add enough filtered water to cover the beans by a generous couple of inches. Add the remaining piece of kombu, bay leaf, garlic, shallots, cilantro stems, spices, olive oil and salt to the pot. Bring everything up to a gentle boil, then lower the heat to maintain an excited simmer; you want the beans to be dancing, but not raging. Skim the scum that rises to the top. Cook, uncovered, for 45 minutes to an hour - until the beans are truly tender. Nobody wants an undercooked bean.

• When the beans are tender and delicious, take them off the heat and add a splash of sherry vinegar to lift all of the flavors. Taste for seasoning and adjust with an additional pinch of salt if necessary.

• Store the beans in their broth in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

• Serve piping hot in a generous puddle of broth, and top with an olive oil fried sunny side up egg and fresh cilantro.