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spoonful of homemade pinto beans

Homemade Pinto Beans

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5 from 1 review

Learn how to cook pinto beans from scratch sans a ham hock! These homemade pinto beans are the best—creamy, tender, and flavorful! You’ll never go back to canned beans. Add cornbread, and call it dinner!

  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 12 1x

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 lb dried pinto beans, rinsed, soaked, and sifted
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 small onion, sliced

Instructions

  1. Add pinto beans to a bowl and cover with water by about 3 inches. You want to make sure they’ll be fully covered. Soak overnight, or for at least 6-8 hours at room temperature (no more or they’ll split when cooking.)
  2. Drain and rinse the pinto beans well. Add the beans to the Instant Pot and cover with 6 cups of water, just enough to cover them fully.
  3. Add the garlic cloves, sliced onion, and salt to the beans.
  4. Pressure cook on high for ~15 minutes. 
  5. Release the pressure: Allow the pot to naturally release all the pressure for 15 minutes. Be careful of the steam. Drain off any excess cooking liquid – you can keep the cooking liquid for freezing if you puree a portion of the beans, but drain it if you want the cooked beans to be used in other dishes.
  6. Enjoy! These beans are ready! Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months (if they’re properly stored).  

Notes

*The other step I took to make the beans extra creamy was pureeing some of them. This is what helped make the beans extra creamy! If you add the beans to another dish, I would NOT recommend pureeing them. It all depends on what you’ll be using the beans for! 2 cups of beans with some of the bean liquid and add either to a blender, food processor, or immersion blender to puree. Add back to the rest of the beans.

*To quick-soak dried beans, place them in a large pot and cover them with at least two inches of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, adjust the heat, and cook at a low boil, uncovered, for two minutes.  Remove from the heat and let the beans continue to soak, uncovered, for one hour.  Drain, and then cover with fresh water in the pressure cooker.  

Find it online: https://www.amysnutritionkitchen.com/homemade-pinto-beans/

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