Instant Pot Refried Beans

 Ingredients

• 3 cups dry pinto beans
• 4 1/2 cups water
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar, or lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

Instructions

How to cook pinto beans in a pressure cooker

1. Put dry beans in the reservoir of your Instant Pot and add enough water to cover the beans by 4-5″ or so. Soak eight hours or overnight. Drain beans then add onions, garlic, and 4-1/2 cups water to the pot. (If you just need cooked pinto beans, leave out the onions and garlic.) Be sure that the ingredients don't exceed the halfway mark in the cooker as mentioned in the Instant Pot manual.
2. Close and lock the lid, turning the steam valve to "sealed." Using the manual setting, enter 28 minutes and walk away. When the cycle completes, use the natural release method. Simply let the pressure come down on its own until the lid unlocks. (About 20 minutes.)

Instant Pot refried beans

1. use a slotted spoon to remove beans from cooking liquid, retaining the cooking liquid. Transfer to a bowl to use an immersion blender or the bowl of a food processor. Process until beans are a creamy consistency, adding cooking liquid as necessary to reach desired consistency. 
2. If you don’t have either of these tools, get out your potato masher – that’ll work, too.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients.
4. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to a week.

Notes

Makes approximately the equivalent of 5 – 16oz cans of refried beans.

With the Instant Pot, you can easily go from hard, dry pinto beans to fully cooked beans in an hour. But soaking beans before cooking them can make them more digestible. And for many people that means fewer...side effects.

If you opt not to soak your beans you'll need to use more water. In that case, I'd cover the beans by 3" of water. Just be sure that you don't exceed the halfway mark in the cooker.

You can get more details and tips about the recipe by clicking onto the website here.  (attainable-sustainable.net)

For my birthday this year, Rachel had me over for dinner and taught me how to make these as we prepared them together.  It was super easy.  We used an immersion blender to "mash up" the beans.  I've never used an immersion blender before.  I don't know how I've lived without one.  Rachel also taught me everything I need to know about an Instant Pot.