You can eat a big bowl of pinto beans just as they are without one blessed thing on top. And you’ll love them. Add a heaping spoonful of jarred salsa or fresh pico de gallo if you feel the need for a little snazz. Or load up that same bowl with color, texture, and flavor (see photo above) for a totally different experience. Because you can or because you want good looking Super Bowl food! We do eat first with our eyes. You could add the beans to a pot of chili or a plate of perky salad or platter of pasta laced with thinly sliced jalapeño. Toss them in a food processor and whirr together a dip. Be like Chipotle and roll up a burrito. Poach your eggs in a cup of them and score about 30 grams of protein. Build up a 7-layer dip. (Remember those?) Refry the bejesus out of a cup or two. Is the sky the limit? It is. Mighty pinto beans, good and gorgeous food, are also ferociously versatile. And did you know my fine state, Colorado, produces a lot of the pinto bean crop, along with Mexico, New Mexico, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Idaho?
I make pinto beans once a month or so for dinner. We eat a big bowl with cornbread and then freeze the rest in small containers to serve with tacos or thaw for a quick weekday lunch. I have little against canned beans and keep them in my cabinet year round —LOVE CHILI!!–but homemade beans are such a major step up. They’re cheaper, too, (about half the price) and less full of the dreaded sodium. I do cook them on the stovetop or in the Instant Pot but the slow cooker might be my favorite method. There’s something about getting things done early and not worrying about them the rest of the day. Something about walking into the house during the day and the sweet fragrance hitting you in the face, letting you know, “Dinner’s coming.” Something about something bubbling away on the countertop while you do whatever it is you want to do. Slow cooker food sort of spells, “freedom” to this cook.
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