Description
Pressure Cooker Pinto Beans, Tex-Mex style with bacon, onions, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin.
Ingredients
Scale
Soaking Beans
- 1 pound dried pinto beans, sorted and rinsed
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 8 cups water
Aromatics
- 2 ounces bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces (I cut 1 inch off the end of a slab of bacon)
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
Bean cooking ingredients
- 5 cups water
- Optional - 1 tablespoon lard (or vegetable oil)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Soak the pinto beans: At least 8 hours before cooking, sort the pinto beans, removing broken beans, stones, and dirt clods. Rinse the beans, put them in a large container, sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt, pour in the 8 cups of water, and stir to dissolve the salt. Let the beans soak for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
- Sauté the aromatics: Put the bacon in the pressure cooker pot over low heat, (Saute mode adjusted to low in an Instant Pot) and cook until the bacon renders its fat crisps up, about 10 minutes. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate with a slotted spoon, leaving as much of the bacon fat behind as possible. (There should be 1 to 2 teaspoons of fat left in the pan; if there is a lot less, add a little vegetable oil.) Turn the heat up to medium (Sauté mode adjusted to medium), add the onion and jalapeno, sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Make a hole in the middle of the onions and add the garlic and ground cumin; let sit in the pan for 1 minute, or until you can smell the garlic cooking. Stir the garlic and cumin into the onions.
- Cook the pinto beans: Drain the pinto beans and add them to the pressure cooker. Pour in the water, stir, then add the bay leaf and vegetable oil. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, and pressure cook on high pressure for 18 minutes (15 minutes in a stovetop PC). Quick release the pressure in the pot. Remove the lid carefully, opening away from you - even when it's not under pressure, the steam in the cooker is very hot.
- Finish the beans: Discard the bay leaf, and stir in the reserved bacon. Stir in the teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper, serve, and enjoy!
Equipment
Buy Now → - Prep Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Tex-Mex