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Healthier Pinto Beans

Healthier than the usual addition of hawg jowl or fat back, that is.





List of Ingredients



• 1 pound dried pinto beans or other dried beans
  
• 1 onion, minced
  
• Water to cover
  
• Defatted ham drippings or broth
  
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (well, less, if you insist)
  
• 2-3 dried red chile pods
  
• 1 package ham seasoning (Goya has a ham flavoring that produces great flavor without fat)
  






Instructions



1. Sort beans, rinse well, and soak overnight.
   
2. In morning, add water to cover beans by a good 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 40 minutes.
   
3. Add defatted ham drippings* and remaining ingredients. Simmer another 30-45 minutes, or until beans are soft.
   
4. *To defat ham drippings: A day or two before cooking the beans, bake a ham in a baking bag. Add about 1 cup water to juices in bottom of bag. Pour into a deep small bowl and refrigerate. When fat has solidified, scrape it off the top and discard it. Or, to make defatted broth from other sources (fat back, salt pork, hog jowl, ham hocks, bacon, etc.), cover the meat with water. Boil until tender. Strain into a small, deep bowl. Refrigerate overnight. Remove all traces of fat.
   
5. Remove a cup or two of beans and mash with a potato masher. Return to pot and simmer to thicken.
   
6. Variation: Add chili powder to taste.
   






Final Comments


Serve the beans as a side dish. You may also use the beans and additonal meat (sausage, ham, bacon) as a main dish. We like them over rice.

I often drain the cooked beans and reduce the reserved liquid to add substance and flavor to the finished beans.

I also often turn leftovers into refried beans by either using a potato masher or a hand-held blender to mash them. These are good in quesadillas, nachos, tacos, or taco salad.

Please note that I've not added salt. The ham drippings and Goya seasoning usually make this dish adequately salty. However, feel free to add more.

A word about Goya ham flavoring: We discovered this several years ago and I use it often. Southerners love vegetables cooked in assorted smoked pork cuts. Unfortunately, these additions also add lots of fat and calories. The Goya flavoring is quite close to the real thing. I've even made Yankee Bean Soup with it and the result was very good and practically fat free.