Pressure Cooker Refried Beans

One of my favorite uses for the pressure cooker is making beans from scratch. I hardly even look at recipes that use canned beans anymore because dry beans are such a cinch in the pressure cooker. Dry beans are so amazing because of their storage properties - they can store forever! Well not forever, but for a long time (10 years or more if you store them right). I love to buy them in bulk and keep them in my pantry so that I always have them when I want to cook with them. Beans have a lot of protein and are very good for you. Plus they are a lot cheaper than meat. Our family loves black beans and we make this recipe for Mexican black beans a lot.

Today I want to share another amazing recipe that you can make with dry pinto beans from your storage. These are so yummy and you will never want to go back to canned refried beans again. I found the original recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen and adapted it slightly when I made itI love this recipe because it uses simple ingredients that you can keep on hand and turns out totally, amazingly delicious.

These green onions are from my garden :)


Pressure Cooker Refried Beans

*6-8 Servings

2 Cups dried pinto beans
3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 Cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp. minced garlic (no, this is not a typo...)
1 4-oz. can diced green chiles
1 tsp. salt
sour cream, for serving
sliced green onions, for serving

Sort dry beans by removing rocks and impurities. Then put them in a colander and rinse well to remove all the dirt.  Put beans in pressure cooker with enough water to cover by 1 to 1-1/2 inches. The exact amount of water is not important but too much is better than too little. Add 1 T olive oil to cooker, then lock lid, bring to high pressure, and cook 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn off heat and use a quick pressure release.

When pressure has released, add chopped onion, minced garlic, canned green chiles, and salt to pressure cooker. Lock lid again and pressure cook 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how old the beans are. For newly purchased beans start with 10 minutes. Older beans will take longer to cook, so start with 15 minutes. You want the beans to be fairly soft and starting to crack open. If you get open the pressure cooker and the beans are not quite soft, just re-lock the lid, bring up to pressure and cook another 5 to 10 minutes.

When pressure has released the second time, remove lid and without draining, mash or puree beans to desired consistency. You can use an immersion blender, a potato masher or a regular blender. The trick is to get the consistency right and it kind of depends on how your tastes. If you like whole beans in your refried beans, make sure you don't blend or mash all the beans. If you like them really smooth, blend more. Personally, I like my refried beans somewhere in the middle, some parts chunky, some parts smooth. I put about half of the bean mixture in the blender and pulse a couple of times - so it's still chunky. Then I put the other half in a pulse it until it's a little smoother. Then I combine the two parts and that's how I like it. The mixture may still be runnier than you like. That's fine. Don't worry about draining any liquid off, it will thicken up in the next step.

When beans are as smooth or chunky as you prefer, heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy, nonstick pan. Add beans and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often, until beans have thickened to desired consistency. It should take only about 10-15 minutes. Serve hot, topped with sour cream and thinly sliced green onions, if desired. Other serving ideas include: over Navajo tacos, with chips, in a bean burrito, in taco salad, in tacos, or in tostadas; the possibilities are endless.

Recipe Source: Recipe slightly adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

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