I've been in a rice and beans mood lately. They're both really great quick and easy recipes that you can toss together on the go. I like to start a batch of beans in the morning before I go to work or at night right before I go to bed. That way I get to come home or wake up to freshly cooked beans. When you add in a fun spice blend, the entire house smells delicious. And a little bit spicy. Hence, the Slow Cooker No-fry Refried Pinto Beans w/ Carolina Reapers.
You also don't have to make your beans with Carolina reapers! I've just brought in most of my plants from outside. Pepper plants are actually perennials and will come back the next season. In my climate, they also tend to produce fruit for another couple of months indoors. I started pulling mine in in October and will probably have fresh peppers until Christmas. Either way, homemade slow cooker beans are incredibly simple to make. They only take about fifteen minutes of prep time. Unless you want to mash them, in which case, add another fifteen minutes at the end of the process to break out a potato masher.
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Variations of No-fry Refried Pinto Beans
You don't have to mash your beans after they come out of the crock pot. I often leave them whole and just scoop them out. It can be fun to make no-fry refried beans, though. You can do this with a potato masher, a fork, or even pulsed in a blender or food processor, depending on how smooth you want them to be. This gives them that refried beans consistency that we're all used to in the can. Only, significantly more flavorful. I'll never go back to store-bought beans. These are just too easy to make!
You could also actually re-fry them. I have done this before. Although, I tend to think of refried beans more as a texture than a literal additional frying of them. The difference in taste is negligible. I'm calling them no-fry refried beans. I highly doubt that anyone would be able to tell the difference, though! And why make an incredibly easy dish even slightly more complicated?
Add the beans and all of the other ingredients to a crock pot with the water.
Cook on low for 8 hours, or until the desired consistency is reached. I like to start the beans in the morning and then come back to then after work or before bed to wake up to freshly cooked beans.The beans should retain their shape during the cooking process (and not start to break apart), but should be soft enough to pinch between your fingers or a fork. It's much like the consistency of a baked potato, where you could theoretically turn it into mashed potatoes, but it also stands on its own.There may still be some residual water left in the crock pot after 8 hours. If the beans aren't fully cooked, simply continue to cook until the water cooks in and the beans are the right tenderness. If the beans are fully cooked, you can drain the water or quickly simmer the remainder of it out on the stove. Depending on how old your beans are, they may require slightly different amounts of water to re-hydrate. Older beans will take more water and time, while fresher beans will cook in less time with less water.
Remove the bay before serving or storing.The bay leaves are for flavor and not everyone wants to eat an entire leaf! So, take note of how many you put in and make sure to remove them after cooking. You can pull them out later. But, if you refrigerate the beans, they'll solidify more when chilled and the bay leaves will be harder to find. It's easier to do this while they're still warm and you can easily sift through them!
Mash Beans
Remove the bay leaves and mash with a potato masher. You can also pulse in a food processor or purée entirely, if you want a smoother consistency.This might require more water. If you reserved some of the cooking water, add this back into the beans as needed. Otherwise, just add more tap water until you've reached the desired consistency.
Adjust seasoning to taste and serve immediately or refrigerate.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
For more information about making dried beans in a crock pot, I have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Slow Cooker Black Beans. Which has additional tips and tricks along with the rationale for not pre-soaking or rinsing beans and bean substitutions if you want to cook with pinto or other bean varieties.
With pinto beans, they're a little bit softer than black beans. This means that they can cook in a little bit less time and with potentially less water than black beans (although this can vary wildly based on how long your beans have been drying). If your crock pot has multiple time settings, you can likely get away with 6 hours (mine does not; it's 4 or 8 hours, so I do 8 hours, which also makes them soft enough to mash with ease, if that's your end goal as well).
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