Habichuelas that break the rules

Cooking Is About Creativity

This is probably a topic I’m going to burn out on with this blog, but for me, cooking is about creativity.

When I was in college, I had a cinematography professor who said that rules are often meant to be broken. That has stayed with me ever since. Of course, he also said we can't break the laws, like the law of gravity, but rules are different. We can absolutely break the rule of thirds, or whatever creative rule is standing in our way.

For me, that’s one of the most important things I take into consideration whenever I approach a piece of art.

Cooking isn’t any different.

I would never add salt to a dry-cured ham, for instance. But can I throw some random meat into a boiling pot full of beans? Yes, we can.

The Meal That Changed My Mind

A few years later, around 2020, when COVID was the main thing happening in New York City, I went to visit a friend in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She was graduating that year and needed graduation pictures. Since photography was still just a hobby for me, she said, “I can pay you with food.”

After taking pictures near the Verrazzano Bridge, she cooked something that, to this day, still amazes me. It was one of those ideas that seemed so effortless and so creative at the same time. Kind of like watching a movie that’s so bad it’s good. I’m not saying the meal was bad—far from it—but it was crazy to think you could put those two things together.

It was kind of lazy food, but at the same time, it was brilliant.

A Long Overdue Apology

I also owe this person an apology.

Around that time, I was just learning how to cook, and I was experimenting with everything. I remember telling her something like, “I think it needs a little more tomato sauce.”

Looking back, that was pretty funny coming from someone who barely knew how to cook.

I haven’t talked to her since then, but to this day I still make this recipe. I’ve changed it a little over the years, and now I’m so confident making it that I honestly think I can cook one of the best pots of habichuelas you’ll ever eat.

These aren’t ordinary habichuelas.

These are habichuelas con albóndigas.

Ingredients

• 1 can of pink beans (red beans work too)

• 1 onion

• 1 garlic clove

• Cilantro

• 1 bell pepper

• Meatballs

• Tomato sauce

• Olive oil

How I Make Them

I start by smashing a garlic clove and adding it to a pot with a little olive oil. Then I chop the onion, cilantro, and bell pepper to make a simple sofrito and add everything to the pot.

As the vegetables start to dry out, I keep adding small splashes of water. It helps release all the flavor without burning the sofrito.

After doing that a few times, I add the can of pink beans, about half a can of water, and a generous splash of tomato sauce. Then I add more cilantro and finally the meatballs.

I let everything simmer until the sauce thickens. While it’s cooking, I highly recommend mashing a few beans against the bottom of the pot with a spoon. That helps thicken the sauce naturally.

That’s it. It’s a simple recipe.

How to Serve Them

You can serve them with white rice, tostones, yuca, or whatever you like. It’s just a simple pot of habichuelas with the protein already included—perfect for those days when you don’t want to spend the whole day cooking.

Final Thoughts

If there’s one thing this recipe reminds me of, it’s that creativity doesn’t always have to be complicated.

Sometimes the best ideas come from breaking a few rules. Sometimes they come from putting two things together that nobody thought belonged in the same pot.

That’s exactly what these habichuelas con albóndigas are.