Recipe: Mexican Pinto Beans

Making beans is surprisingly easy and very satisfying... This is a great recipe to make to make on a Sunday to have beans for the whole week - they are delicious as a side or as a base for tacos, huevos rancheros, burritos, or a soup.

Ingredients:

1 lb of dry pinto beans
1 yellow onion, diced
1 Poblano pepper, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
Salt to taste
4 sprigs of cilantro, separated from the stems and roughly chopped (optional)

10-14 hours before you are ready to cook the beans (either the night or the morning before), place them in a bowl or pot and cover them in water, filling it so that there are 1-2 inches of liquid above the beans. 

Once you are ready to cook the beans, you can strain them out of the water into a sieve, rinse them, then put them back into a pot and add the diced onion, pepper, and garlic, and stir well. 

Fill the pot with water until the beans are just covered, and add the pot's lid so it leaves about half an inch gap to allow steam out.  Put the pot over low to medium heat until the water begins to simmer, then turn the burner to the lowest heat that will keep the water bubbling 

Keep a close eye on the beans, stirring every few minutes and adding water if they are no longer covered.  After about an hour, check the tenderness of the beans - depending on how long they soaked, it should take one to two hours on the stove to cook fully. 

Once they are chewy and soft, add salt to taste and allow the water to cook down so that they aren't too soupy.  Remove from heat and garnish with the cilantro if desired.

Note: These can be eaten right away, refrigerated for about a week, or frozen for a couple of months or so - they can easily be reheated on the stove or in the microwave.