bean trouble

My beans turned out so boring, almost too boring to eat.  What did I do wrong?  We soaked too many, so I didn't want to add carrots and increase the volume.  Maybe it's the carrot lack that is making them hella boring?  So we added carrots after all, but maybe it was too late.  Ming just put in more cayenne pepper.

Meanwhile, the rice is good.

Maybe our beans are too old.  We are using old dusty donated beans.  They're free.