Soup is perfect for January weather, especially when paired with some fresh baked bread. This soup brings together the comforting creaminess of white beans with the tang of the kielbasa and tomatoes.
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beans
Let me start with a bit of a disclaimer. This is not a traditional refried beans recipe. It is a recipe that I created to be a healthy replacement for a Mexican side dish I love so it is not fried once, much less twice. The flavor is so similar though, that you won’t know the difference.
I cannot adequately explain how much I love using the slow cooker. It is the ultimate small kitchen appliance that is as easy to use as it is versatile. My slow cooker is used about once a week for everything from pizza sauce to Thai peanut chicken, helping me make flavorful meals with just a few minutes of prep time. At the end of a long workday, it is too easy to stop by the drive-thru window for dinner, so why not toss a few ingredients in the slow cooker while you’re waiting for your coffee to brew and come home to dinner perfection?
Homemade Slow Cooker Refried Beans
2014-01-04 06:47:28
Don't tell anyone they aren't actually fried!
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Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
7 hr
Total Time
7 hr 15 min
Ingredients
- 8 oz. dried pintos (about 2 cups)
- 6-8 cups water
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon homemade taco seasoning mix
- 1/2 jalapeno, coarsely chopped (or a few jarred slices)
- 2 teaspoons granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- The Night Before, Rinse and sort dried beans and add to crock pot. Cover with 6 cups of water and allow to soak until morning.
- Drain soak water and add 6-8 cups of water to the crock pot along with beans and remaining ingredients.
- Cover and set your slow cooker on low heat. Cook for 5-7 hours on low, or until beans are fork tender.
- Drain beans over a large bowl or pot to keep the cooking liquid.
- Using a wooden spoon or potato masher, mash the beans until they are the desired consistency. For me that means a coarse mash that’s about 50/50 creamy and chunky. Add reserve liquid as needed and freeze the remaining liquid for adding to soups or stews later.
Notes
- You can use this recipe as a guideline for just making a really good pot of pinto beans if you don’t want to mash them. Adjust the spices to your taste and serve as beans & rice!
Michael Nolan's My Earth Garden http://www.myearthgarden.com/
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Are you one of those people who are afraid to cook with dried beans because you are never quite sure how to do it? Not only are dried beans nutrition dense, they are inexpensive, easy to store and they taste great!
Here is one of the easiest recipes I’ve come up with for cooking dried pinto beans and it is so tasty that everyone will want to know how you did it.
You’ll Need:
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1 lb (approx. 2 cups) dried pinto beans
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6 cups water
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3 Tablespoons dehydrated minced onion
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1 Tablespoon sea salt
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1 fresh jalapeno pepper, sliced (optional)
What to Do:
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Rinse and sort the dried beans, removing any debris and broken beans.
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In a large saucepan, add all ingredients and bring to the boil.
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Reduce heat to medium and cook uncovered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
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Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Notes:
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Add water 1 cup at a time as needed to avoiding scorching the beans. Ideally, there should be enough liquid to have a gravy-like consistency but not so much that it appears soupy.
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You can use fresh onion in the place of dehydrated. 1 cup of fresh diced onion is equal to 3 Tablespoons of dehydrated minced onion.
This recipe results in perfectly cooked pinto beans every single time no matter how much (or how little) experience you have in the kitchen.
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At the risk of being accused of OCD, I share these diagrams of the new garden beds planted here on the homestead. Fresh on the heels of being called sexy by Ecosalon.com, I guess I felt the need to prove that I’m more gardener than sexy. When the beds are all finished, these diagrams will be complemented with photographs that will join them in the garden notebook for this season. (I’ll talk more about garden notebooks soon.)
Three rows of bush beans and two rows of Clemson Spineless Okra are virtually maintenance free once they are established. They were started from seed on 5/2/11. The Black Beauty Eggplant seedlings as well as the tomato seedlings were started indoors on the homestead in March. The “? Tomato” was a volunteer seedling that started in a leftover bin of peat moss, so it won’t be identifiable until there are some tomatoes on it.
This herb bed is absolutely gorgeous. It is a combination of some of the most aromatic and beautiful herbs around. We’ve already used basil and parsley!
This is one of two tomato beds, this one including tomatillos and wayward bell pepper and dill plants. The Homestead 24 tomatoes as well as the San Marzano heirloom came from our recent trip to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale. The rest were started from my personal seed collection.
The second tomato bed was actually planted first. It includes seven tomato seedlings that were all started from seed here on the homestead. The banana peppers were also started here. The mini bell pepper was a purchase from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale, and it is already producing!
Here’s the rundown of what has been planted since the last update:
- 5 Boston Pickling Cucumbers
- 5 Yellow Straight Neck Summer Squash
- Sunflowers
- 3 Large Red Cherry Heirloom Tomatoes
- 4 tomatillos
- 4 Aunt Ruby’s German Green Heirloom Tomatoes
- 3 Livingston Golden Queen Heirloom Tomatoes
- 3 Black Sea Man Heirloom Tomatoes
- 4 Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter Heirloom Tomatoes
- 2 Grandpa’s Cock’s Plume Heirloom Tomatoes
- 1 ? Tomato
- 2 Black Beauty Eggplant
- 2 Brussels Sprouts
- 5’ Cowpeas / Purple Hulls
- 5’ Mangetout Oregon Sugar Pod
- 6 Zucchini
- 2 rows of Clemson Spineless Okra
- 12 Romano Bush Beans
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For better than a third of my life I was a vegetarian and veggie burgers were a regular staple in my diet. For that reason I asked John to take the lead in making this recipe, so that I wouldn’t be as tempted to exert my experience into the mix.
(11) Black Bean Veggie Burgers
see link for recipe source
I chose this recipe based on the fact that we had frozen black beans on hand and most black bean burger recipes I was able to find specifically call for canned beans which would have required us to deviate from the recipe as written.
John didn’t believe that the recipe would actually deliver on the 10 large burgers it claimed to yield, but to be as true to the recipe as possible, he weighed the finished mix and came up with a total of 25 ounces.
The mix was then broken down into 10 equal portions of 2.5 ounces each.
We formed the patties as directed and fried 4 of the 10, as two veggie burgers for each of us seemed like plenty of food. In reality, it was enough for both of us to be full and satisfied and we have 6 frozen burgers for another dinner and lunch all out of one recipe.
Verdict: Flavor-wise the burgers are delicious, with none of the generally dominant flavors in the recipe standing out more than any other. The flavors all meshed well together.
As to the instruction in the recipe, I feel that there should have been more information given about how to handle veggie patties that are far more fragile than meat burgers. More cooking time would have produced a firmer texture with more tooth, but there was nothing that made this burger a negative experience whatsoever.
Half an hour later, John said “mmmm, I could eat another one”
One final note on the nutritional differences between this recipe and a comparable beef burger of the same weight:
Calories:
- Beef Burger: 168
- Black Bean Burger: 104
- TOTAL SAVINGS OF 64 CALORIES
Fat:
- Beef Burger: 11.5 grams
- Black Bean Burger: 3 grams
- TOTAL SAVINGS OF 8.5 GRAMS
Those on low carb or low sodium diets will want to skip this one, as the black bean burger weighs in at 3 times the carbs and sodium as the comparable beef burger. When you factor in the 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber though, this is one delicious and health-conscious choice that we strongly recommend.
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