Cowgirl Beans is an easy, budget-friendly recipe featuring dried pinto beans cooked with tomato, jalapeno, and onion.
Here we are in the hottest part of the summer. Daily temperatures are hovering around 100. Humidity is through the roof. And what do I do? Why of course, I get out my pots and pans and cook up some Cowgirl Beans. Yeah. I’m weird like that. Admittedly, this is more of a fall or winter kind of recipe, but doggone it, I was just craving a pot of pinto beans.
BeeBop is always talking about the “pintos and cheese” that his Mom made for them when he was a little fellow growing up out west. BeeBop’s family is from the same area as mine, but his Dad was in the Air Force, so he moved around a couple of times before they settled down again in south Georgia.
Apparently, pinto beans were a big part of their diet out in New Mexico where they were stationed for a while. And they were cheap – very important when you’re raising five kids on military pay!
Anyway, I’ve been trying for years to find a recipe that would satisfy his craving for Mom’s “pintos and cheese.” I haven’t yet hit on the magical combination, but in the process I’ve found some pretty tasty recipes!
This one for Cowgirl Beans was published by Craig Claiborne in his wonderful book Craig Claiborne’s Southern Cooking, but I’m sure it wasn’t his original creation. I’d guess that this recipe had been around the block a couple of times before he got it. Regardless, it’s a great dish to serve with hearty food. I served it with some pork chops and a fresh green salad.
Oh, and if anybody out there has a recipe for “pintos and cheese” please send it my way?
Recipe Snapshot
Cuisine: American
Cooking Method: Stovetop
Total Time: 1 Hour, 50 minutes
Servings: 4
Primary Ingredient(s): Dried pinto beans, onion, jalapeno, tomato, cilantro
Skill Level: Easy
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How to Make Cowgirl Beans
To summarize the recipe steps for you – you simply start with dried pinto beans and water. Bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and let them cook, partly covered, for one hour. After an hour of cooking time, add the salt and half the onion. Continue cooking for 30 minutes more.
Heat up a small skillet with a little oil and cook the remaining onion and the jalapeno until the onion is starting to soften. Add the tomatoes and cilantro and continue cooking for about 3 minutes.
Remove about a cup of beans with the liquid and puree them in a blender or food processor until they are as fine a texture as possible. Stir the pureed beans back into the pot. Add the sauteed tomato and onion mixture and stir it into the beans. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes or so.
Serve the beans as they are, or with a selection of toppings such as grated cheddar cheese, chopped scallions, sour cream, and salsa.
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Recipe
Cowgirl Beans
Ingredients
- 8 ounces dried pinto beans
- 6 ½ cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 small fresh jalapeno finely chopped
- 1 small ripe tomato chopped
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Rinse the 8 ounces dried pinto beans and place them in a large pot with the 6 ½ cups water.
- Bring the beans up to the boil. Partly cover beans and cook at a simmer for 1 hour.
- Add the 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 of a medium onion chopped. Continue cooking, uncovered, for about 30 minutes more.
- Heat the 1 tablespoon canola oilin a small skillet and add the remaining 1/2 of a medium onion chopped and 1 small fresh jalapeno chopped. Cook just until the onion is wilted.
- Stir in the 1 small ripe tomato and ¼ cup chopped cilantro. Cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Remove one cup of the beans with their liquid and process them in a blender or food processor until as fine as possible.
- Return the pureed mixture to the beans and stir together.
- Add the tomato-onion mixture to the beans and continue to simmer about 5 minutes more.
- Serve as is or with toppings of grated cheddar cheese, chopped scallions, sour cream and salsa.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your healthcare provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.
that looks great. I like how you thickened the broth with puree – very neat idea. I’ve heard about puree-ing beans into pasta sauce to sneak in proetin for the kiddies as well.
You had me at cowgirl ; )
absolutely beautiful picture! yum :)
Why, thank you, Megan.
I’m the same way! I totally always choose to make the most intensive, oven-using recipes ever on the hottest day!
These look great and well worth it :)
I wonder why that is! I seem to crave long-cooked wintry recipes in the middle of summer. Just crazy, I guess :-)
Lana, I tried for 20 years to make pinto beans that tasted nearly as good as my mama’s, with no luck whatsoever. When she passed away, I inherited her pressure cooker, and guess what? Apparently, that was the secret! The best part about that (besides the flavor) is it doesn’t heat up the kitchen. Here’s the easy-peasy way to make my mama’s beans: sort through your dried pintos and discard any dirt, rocks, etc. Soak a cup or two of pintos in the pressure cooker overnight (covered or uncovered, doesn’t matter), just make sure you use twice as much water as beans. When you’re ready to cook them the next day/evening, pour the beans into a colander and rinse them well. Put them back into the pressure cooker, add a smoked ham hock and half an onion (diced); cover it all with water. Close, cook on high until the pressure indicator starts rockin’, reduce heat to medium, and let the indicator rock for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the cooker sit there for another 15 minutes or so (chop up some cilantro, onion if you like, and grate some cheddar while you’re waiting); carry it to the sink and run water over it until all the pressure has dissipated. Open it up, spoon a mess into a bowl, garnish with the onions, cheese & cilantro, and enjoy! We prefer a big pan of your egg bread (cornbread) with our beans, hot & covered with butter ‘n honey. :-)
Wow, Peg, I never even though about using the pressure cooker. What a great idea! I’m trying your recipe next!
Though not as hot here in Denver or as humid as you have it in Georgia, I hate turning my stove or oven on…so I use my grill and would most certainly do that for these beans. Nothing quite like slowed cooked homemade beans.
Please don’t apologize about no step by step instructions; some of us actually prefer not having that. Really. :)
Thanks, Barbara. You’d be surprised how many emails I get from people who are really grateful for the step-by-step photos. Mostly when it’s some complicated step in a recipe, though. Thinking I might just do a minimum of those from now on. Taking all those photos really slows down the cooking time!
Love the added kick!
Loving the jalapeno and cilantro in these beans. I will definitely be bookmarking this one for future use!
That looks delicious!
I’m from New Mexico, and I love pinto beans, but I don’t really know of any actual recipes for pintos and cheese. I’d guess that if you just made the pintos from this recipe with less water and only onion and garlic as seasoning, and then sprinkled some shredded Cheddar on top so it melted slightly, that might be close? I’m used to pintos here being served fairly thick, not quite as soupy, so I think reducing the amount of water in the cooking liquid would work—or you could refry them once they’re cooked, and maybe that would be close to what he grew up with. Happy experimenting!
Jen – I’m gonna keep working on it until I get the recipe just right! BeeBop will let me know when I hit on the perfect combination :-)
oh yeah, give me a big bowl and a slab of cornbread and I will be a happy boy… this is one I will make too as I am always trying to duplicate a similar pinto bean dish like this one, it was served as an appetizer with tortilla chips in a restaurant in San Antonio back in the ’70’s… this one sounds like it would fit into many meals… one I am planning on making real soon, even in the heat of summer…
Ooooo…pintos with tortilla chips! That sounds so good.
Healthy and light for these hot days love it!
Looks wonderful, even if you did have to sweat it out in the kitchen to make it!
Oh, it wasn’t so bad really. I just cranked the a/c down and enjoyed cooking!
I love pinto beans. I am trying this one for sure
Thanks, Alison. Hope you enjoy it.
All I would need is some jalapeno and cheese cornbread to go with this and I could float like Scooby.
Oh, of course, cornbread is perfect with these beans!
Lana, these sound absolutely delicious and your photo is stunning!
Thanks, Kathleen. The photography is so difficult for me, but I keep trying and learning!