The best healthy slow cooker pinto bean recipe! Easy to make, perfectly flavored, and naturally vegan! Enjoy these straight up in a bowl or use them in any recipe, whole or mashed as refried beans!
Soak your dried pinto beans in a large bowl covered with 3 inches (or more) of water for at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Rinse and drain beans.
Place beans into slow cookerwith water, cumin, salt, onion and garlic powder, olive oil, diced onion, and a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis.
Cover and cook on high for at least 6.5-8 hours. Test for desired tenderness near the end of cook time.
For Whole Pinto Beans: Serve with the bean juice for more of a soup-style pinto bean bowl, or use a slotted spoon to strain the bean juice.
For Refried Pinto Beans: Strain desired amount of beans, reserving the bean liquid. Using a potato masher, smash beans in the crockpot or another pan (maybe you’ll want to save some whole beans for another meal), adding bean liquid as needed to reach desired thickness. You can also use your blender to puree beans quickly, but be super careful – they’re hot! Also note that refried beans tend to thicken quickly as they cool, so be sure to start out with a slightly runny texture.
Notes
SLOW COOKER COOK TIMES:Cooking times vary slightly based on your slow cooker, so just be sure and check your pinto beans near the end of the cook time. If you are comfortable with leaving your slow cooker plugged in at night, you can just turn your beans on when you go to bed and check them when you get up! 8-10 hours of cook time for pinto beans is not a problem!NO-SOAK METHOD:Rinse your pinto beans thoroughly. Add them to your slow cooker with the other ingredients, and then as much water as you can fit. Cover and cook for 10-12 hours, checking part way through and adding 2-3 more cups of water at that time. (The goal is to double the normal amount of water, but an average 6 quart slow-cooker can’t hold quite enough, thus adding a little water later in the cooking process saves the day!) You can also cut this recipe in half and then adding double the normal amount of water for cooking shouldn’t be a problem!HELPFUL RATIOS:Sometimes it’s difficult to know how many beans you want to make! I always like to fill my crockpot in order to economize my time and energy – and to have extra for later! Pinto beans refrigerate and freeze well and can contribute to so many different meals! Here’s a good ratio to think about: 1 cup of dried beans = 3 cups of cooked beans.Since this recipe is very adjustable, another handy rule is the salt rule: You’ll need about 1 teaspoon of salt per cup of dried beans. Obviously if you’re on a low sodium diet, you may need to adjust this, but it is an excellent rule of thumb.TO FREEZE LEFTOVERS:Pinto beans keep in the refrigerator for about a week and in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can drain the bean liquid and freeze in baggies, or save the liquid with the beans and store in portion sized reusable containers! Let them thaw in the refrigerator overnight and add liquid as needed when reheating!