Awesome and Easy Recipe to Make Delicious Pinto Beans. (From Dried or Canned Pinto Beans.)

Making a delicious meal from healthy dried beans is not as hard as you may think. Many countries around the world have been living on dried beans and rice, for centuries.

I'm a visual person and learn better from pictures. If you are visual also, just take a look at the photos and you will be on your way to making a delicious and healthy meal for your family, or friends. In fact, with enough dried beans, you can even feed a neighborhood.

The thought of growing beans has not entered my mind... yet. So for now I just try to find the lowest priced bag of beans from the supermarket. They are easy to find locally, so I haven't tried to purchase beans online.

The Basics.

There is really nothing to picking up a bag or two of dried beans, taking them home, sorting them, rinsing and soaking them overnight. This gives you time to shop around for the other vegetables and ingredients that you want to add to your recipe.

Usually I'm not one for hot peppers, however, a hint of a Poblano or Jalapeno pepper instead of a Green, Red or Yellow Pepper will add a whole new dimension to this recipe.

Soaking Beans.

You must soak the beans. Overnight is best. If you truly don't want to try dried beans then of course you can used canned beans. But that's cheating. Give dried beans a chance. Once you accomplish cooking with dried beans you may never go back to canned beans again.

The Shelf Life of Dried Beans.

Although dried beans have a longer shelf life than canned beans it really isn't that much longer. I always store my dried beans in a glass jar. Try to buy enough beans to last your family for no longer than 6-8 months. Keep an eye on the dried beans and try to use them up in the wintertime. I do most of my dry bean buying for the winter months. I throw canned, rinsed beans into salads during the summer time. If you keep dried beans too long they do not soak or cook down very well. Someone gave me a jar of beans when they were moving and that's how I found out about old beans. I ended up grinding them down and they still did not cook well. As for canned beans, I don't know what kind of chemicals the companies use so I try to stay away from canned beans, however, I can't pass up a sale on White Kidney beans because they are hard to find in the dried version.

Delicious Pinto Beans Recipe:

• 1 Pound Bag of Dried Pinto Beans
• 1 Large Chopped Onion
• 3 Cloves Chopped Garlic Cloves
• 1 Large Chopped Green Pepper
• 1 Large Chopped Red Pepper
• 1 1/2 Quarts Water
• 2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes (or 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes.)
• 2 Tablespoons Vegetable or Olive Oil
• 3 Bay Leaves
• 3 teaspoons Salt
• Ground Pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda

In a 6 Quart Dutch Oven saute' the onion, garlic and peppers in the vegetable or olive oil. Cook on Med. heat with the cover on for about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse the beans. Add to the pot. Add the bay leaves. Cover the beans and vegetables with filtered water until the water is 1 inch above the beans. Should be 1 1/2 quarts of water, if not then add more water until the water is an inch above the beans. Add the baking soda and 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours.

Add the tomatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour.

My husband loves these beans. I always get an extra kiss from him, every time I make my dried pinto bean dish. He especially appreciates my using the baking soda. (Baking soda will take the snaps and toots out of the beans... if you know what I mean.)

You can put your beans over rice, noodles, pasta or even just roll some up in a flour tortilla or stuff into a pita bread. I put mine over No-Carb Noodles.

Until we meet again... Francesca27