How to Cook Pinto Beans
Any Bean lover or Bean connoisseur will tell you they are great for you. The nutrients and health benefits are amazing. Some people like to cook pinto beans then re-cook them as refried beans. Others like them over rice with sausage. Really doesn’t matter which way you cook them, they are delicious. The recipe below is an Old Italian recipe, but people in the south do almost the same thing except that they use white beans instead of pinto beans. However, anything creative with food is fun and tastes divine when cooked properly.
There was a study on Pinto beans where they were found to lower the risk of a heart attack. Beans provide energy to burn while stabilizing your sugar, iron, thiamin for memory loss (Vitamin B1), protein and so much more. The health benefits alone are reason enough to eat beans. Here is a great recipe for beans. You will need the following ingredients.
Bean Pasta
1 1/4-cup of beans
2 bay leaves
2 whole garlic cloves
1 cup of fresh sage
5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 oz of chopped bacon
2 medium size carrots, (chopped)
1 celery stalk (chopped)
6 cups of chicken broth
2 fresh rosemary sprigs, finely chopped
6 fresh thyme sprigs, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup of Olive oil (extra on the side)
Soak the beans overnight
Preparing the beans
Make sure when you are ready to make this dish that you have soaked the beans overnight first. You can put them in a large bowl or a deep pan. Cover them with cool water and leave them out, or put them in the refrigerator.
Cooking instructions
Drain the beans into a baking dish or deep casserole dish and cover them with 1-inch of water. You should preheat the oven to 350 degrees about 20 minutes before you start. Add the bay leaves, whole garlic cloves, the sage and 1-tablespoon of oil. Cover and bake for 1- 1/2 hours. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the virgin olive oil, bacon, carrots, celery, onion and chopped garlic and sauté for several minutes. Pour in the broth, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour. Discard the sage and bay leaves from the beans. Pour half of them in a blender (wait till they are cooled off a bit otherwise you can blow the top of the blender of or worst yet, hurt yourself.) and add them with their cooking liquid to the broth mixture. Bring to a boil.
Serve it hot or cold
Some people like to add noodles or some hot, fresh delicious french breads with ample amounts of Tabasco sauce. Serve this over white rice, brown rice, or long-grain rice. Sprinkle with rosemary, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle-in some of that olive oil you set aside. This dish is out of this world. Who thought beans could taste this good.