Pinto Beans Make Great Refried Beans
My daughter and I eat very few beans. We will eat pinto beans, refried beans, and barbeque beans. Other than that, we are not bean eaters. When she was a baby, she spit the green beans at me. That was what I already thought of them, so I didn’t waste my time with that again! 😉
My grandparents were of the Great Depression era and my parents were born of the WWII era. Their generations wasted nothing and spent very frugally. My parents aren’t well off by any means, but can easily afford to buy grated cheese versus block cheese. However, my mom continues to buy block cheese and grate it at home by hand. She’ll buy whole pintos in a can and mash them herself because they’re cheaper than refried beans.
When I was working, I bought refried beans, grated cheese, ready made pudding, and gelatin. My theory was, “They don’t make it for nothing!” However, I literally went to work one day and found out the next day, while at the doctor’s office, that my disability had been approved. I never taught another day again. My pay literally cut into less than half over night. I have MS and had done tons of research after diagnosis. There is NO way to predict the future with MS, but I had it set in my head that I would make it until my daughter was graduating from high school. I retired in April of her fifth grade year, three months before graduating with my master’s in science education.
Overnight I had to start rethinking our shopping habits. Block cheese and instant pudding started sounding a LOT better, so did those cans of non-mashed pinto beans. For the first time in my life, I even bought a bag of dry pinto beans and cooked them after looking at them in my pantry for months. I knew how to soak beans, but not had to cook them. Over the last few years, this is the recipe that I’ve created.
Pinto beans make great refried beans and our version is MUCH, MUCH cheaper and MUCH, MUCH healthier than those you buy in a can. They are also so much more appealing looking than those you dig out of a can. We did the math and decided that we can make a whole crock-pot full of our beans for about the price we paid for one can of refried beans. My daughter has also recently become obsessed with pepper jack cheese. She places about an ounce of cheese into each container of beans (about 10-12 oz) when we heat them up and our beans are so yummy! They’re perfect for burritos or just as a great side dish. I even use them in place of refried beans in recipes like my Seven Layer Bean Dip. Enjoy!
FYI – – If you are wanting to serve the beans for lunch, you would want to soak the beans during the day, cook on low overnight, and then they will be ready for lunch.
Rating
- 1 lb dry pinto beans
- 6- 8 c water to soak
- 6 c water to cook
- 1 can Mexican Style Tomatoes (I use Red Gold or RoTel)
- ¼ to ⅓ lb ham (optional)
- Garlic Powder or Salt to taste (optional)
- Seasoned Salt to taste (optional)
- ½ tsp. Baking Soda (optional)
- Place dry beans in a bowl that will allow them to swell to at least twice their current size or larger. Fill bowl with water nearly to top. Remove any loose bean husks or other floating particles.
- Allow to soak overnight. Skipping the soaking will increase the cooking time drastically. If you are running behind and don't have time to soak the beans overnight you can boil them on the stove top to increase the rate at which the dry beans take on the water. If you are using this method for the first time, you may want to keep a dry bean or two to help judge how much they have increased in size.
- Drain the water used for soaking or boiling the beans. Rinse beans thoroughly. The water is likely to be cloudy looking, this is normal. The water will also get dark brown as you cook the beans.
- Place the beans in your crock-pot. Chop the ham and add to your beans. I use my mini food processor so that it is almost a puree. This helps it distribute throughout the beans very easily and adds so much flavor to the beans.
- Add 6 cups of water to the crock-pot, the can of tomatoes, the garlic salt, and the seasoned salt. I season heavily and my way of judging is to add enough of each so that it floats on the surface of the water. This sounds extreme, but there are going to be about two pounds of beans when you're finished. You can always start with less and add more as they cook.
- I'm sure you know the old childhood song, "Beans, beans, the musical fruit . . . " You can add about ½ tsp. of baking soda to the pot as the beans are cooking (this works for all gas causing beans) to help break down the gases that form during this process instead of building up as a process in you!
- We cook our beans all day on high. By evening, they're perfect and ready to serve.
- We usually take out what we want and eat them right away and then allow them to continue cooking. After cooking for twelve hours or more, we use our immersion blender to blend them smooth .
- We have now made homemade "refried beans."
- The beans are removed from the crock-pot and portioned into storage containers and frozen.
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