Pinto Beans

I've been trying to use more and more dried beans in my cooking. I think they're tastier than the canned ones. And cheaper.


Have you noticed that some canned beans aren't just beans? There can be other things in the cans, including sugar and who-knows-what else. So I'll stick with just beans whenever I can.

These pinto beans came out very tasty and tender. They may take a little while to make, but they are worth it.

Makes: 8 servings
Prep time: Overnight
Cook time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dried pinto beans, soaked overnight, drained
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 4 tablespoons butter, halved
• 4 cups water
• 1 small red onion, halved
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Put beans into large pot. Add stock and half of the butter. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

2. Add the water and onion and return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

3. Add remaining butter and salt and pepper and simmer, uncovered, for another hour or until beans are tender. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Borracho Beans

I made these a few days ago. We have really enjoyed them. They seem to get even better every day.

I took two pounds of pinto beans and soaked them overnight.


They then went into a pot with 3 quarts of water and a bottle of beer (I used Michelob Ultra Amber), where they were brought to a boil and then simmered for 2 hours.


When the beans were soft I added salt, 3 garlic cloves, and 3 minced jalapeños. In a separate skillet I cooked up 1 pound of bacon (cut into 1" pieces) until crispy and then added a chopped medium onion and let that cook until soft. The bacon and onions then went into the pot with the beans.

Finally, I added about 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro and 3 chopped Roma tomatoes, and let it simmer another hour.

The beans came out very, very tasty. We will definitely make this again.

The recipe states that you might want to skin the tomatoes before putting them into the pot. I skipped that step. I also used half the cilantro the recipe calls for. We like cilantro, but not in large quantities. I also wasn't able to find serrano chiles that day, so I went with 3 jalapeños instead of the 2 serranos that the recipe calls for.