8 cups water
3 cups dry pinto beans
1/4 cup homemade taco seasoning (see below)
1 can tomato paste
1 Tbsp Chicken base (I use organic, low sodium, "Better than Boillon"
put in crockpot on low for 8 hours. I don't recommend trying this with other beans. I hear the cooking time can be WAY different so I can only say this works with pintos.
HOMEMADE TACO SEASONING
Storebought taco seasoning is full of junk you don't want. If you want the flavor with NO unknown ingredients and NO sodium, mix 1/2 cup each cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and oregano in a quart jar and use it to flavor just about anything. This is also WAY cheaper than those little packets
MEXICAN HAYSTACKS
2 cups cooked rice
2 cups crockpot pinto beans
cheese
sour cream
lettuce
tomato
black olives
salsa
CHILI SOUP
2 cups crockpot pinto beans
2 cans chili seasoned tomatoes
1 can low sodium beef broth (or homemade broth or broth from beef base)
1 can whole kernel corn, drained)
2 tbsp chili powder
1 lb cooked ground beef, turkey, or elk (optional)
1 cup cooked barley (optional)
simmer for a while and serve with grated cheese, sour cream, cilantro, etc.. if desired.
BEAN AND CHEESE ENCHILADAS
2 cups crockpot pinto beans
8 whole wheat tortillas
2 cups grated cheese
1 small can enchilada sauce (check label for a short, clean ingredient list)
warm your tortillas so they are soft. Fill with beans and 1/2 the cheese and place in a baking dish. Cover with enchilada sauce and remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes (you want your cheese good and bubbly). You can top with lettuce, tomato, black olives, sour cream, etc. if you want but I really like them best with just sour cream, I'm ashamed to admit. I like my veggies on the side for this one.
Kris, this is such a good idea. I cook with beans so much and I, too, hate all the sodium in the canned stuff. So do you just freeze the beans after you portion them out?
ReplyDeleteFor the taco seasoning, you can toss all the ingredients in the blender--I use dried onion flakes instead of onion powder, but that way the onion and oregano get "powdered" too.
ReplyDeleteFYI- 1 TB of each of the taco seasoning ingredients equals about 1/4 cup for the beans recipe. I also used onion flakes, but didn't bother powdering them. I also didn't have tomato paste, so used 16 oz. of tomato sauce. My kids love the bean sauce. Oh, and make sure you pick through your dried beans before cooking. I found at least 4 rocks in my 3 cups of beans.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I don't know what I did wrong, but my beans took nearly 24 hours to get soft. I turned my crockpot up to medium for the last 12 hours.
ReplyDeleteGosh, Tamlynn, I don't either. Maybe my crockpot is a super duper high powered one or something. I have made several batches like this.
ReplyDelete