These Crock Pot Pinto Beans turn dried beans into tender, flavorful beans with onion, jalapeño, garlic, cumin, and oregano. They’re an inexpensive, hands-off side dish or vegetarian dinner, and you can make them with soaked or unsoaked beans.
My family is pretty obsessed with taco night. It happens several times a month in my house. But with one kiddo toying with vegetarianism and all of my kids eating more as teenagers, we are always looking for more dishes to add to the taco table.
These crock pot pinto beans fit the bill on all fronts. I love them as a simple vegetarian filling for tacos. But they are also amazing as a replacement for refried beans or the perfect easy side dish.
These have wonderful flavor and are very easy to make!
Key Ingredients for Slow Cooker Pinto Peans
- Pinto beans: Start with dry beans. I always sort them to make sure there aren’t any small rocks or pieces of dirt and discard and dry shriveled beans. Soak them overnight in the refrigerator. (Or skip this and add two cups of water and 2 hours of cooking time to the recipe.)
- Vegetable broth: This can be swapped for chicken broth if you don’t need to keep the recipe vegetarian.
- Jalapeño: This gives the recipe a great layer of flavor without making it spicy. Be sure to discard the ribs and seeds of the jalapeño unless you want an extra kick.
- Cumin + oregano: These two spices bring in an earthy taste with cumin bringing a deep background flavor and oregano rounding that out with a subtle herb taste.
- Salt: We are using low sodium broth and then adding salt so that we can better control the saltiness of the final dish.
How to Cook Pinto Beans in a Crock Pot
- Soak your beans overnight, drain and rinse them twice. Please note that you can skip soaking, and cook the beans longer with more liquid.
- Combine all of your ingredients in a crock pot.
- Cook on high for four hours or on low for eight hours until the beans are tender. Enjoy the beans whole or mash them for refried beans.
Do You Have to Soak Pinto Beans Before Slow Cooking?
No. You can make these crock pot pinto beans with soaked or unsoaked beans. I prefer soaking them because soaking is a simple step, it shortens the cooking time, and it gives a slightly creamier texture to the final dish. If you forget, you can still make this recipe in the morning just adding two hours on low (for a total of 10 hours) and two cups of water.
If you are short on time, another great option is to make my Instant Pot pinto beans instead. They cook in just a short 45 minutes.
How Long to Cook Pinto Beans in Crock Pot
The cooking time for pinto beans will depend on the setting you use and whether or not you soak the beans.
- Soak and cook on low for eight hours.
- Soak and cook on high for four hours.
- Skip soaking, add two cups of water, and cook on low for 10 hours.
Troubleshooting
- Pinto beans are still hard: This can happen if you used older beans. Slow cookers also vary in temperature, with some taking longer to cook recipes than others. If at the end of the cook time the beans are still hard, continue cooking the beans adding more liquid if necessary.
- Too much liquid at the end: You can drain off some of the extra liquid. Alternatively, you can turn the slow cooker to high and leave the top off so that some of the liquid evaporates.
Serving
This gluten-free vegan pinto bean recipe is a very versatile dish and can be enjoyed in many ways. Serve it over rice for a main dish (or cauliflower rice for a low-carb option). Or use it as a side dish with your favorite tacos. You can blend the beans and use them to replace refried beans in recipes like my tostadas, baked burritos, taco pizza, or my Mexican pizza.
How to Make Refried Beans with Crockpot Pinto Beans
As mentioned above, this is a great recipe to replace refried beans. At the end of the cook time, blend or mash the beans. I like to do this with an immersion blender for a really smooth consistency. But you could also use a potato masher. If there is a lot of liquid at the end, drain some off before blending. If, during blending, the beans seem to dry and thick, add some cooking liquid or a little bit of broth back in, a little at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
Store your leftover beans in an airtight container for up to four days. Warm up over low heat on the stovetop or in the microwave until heated through. Pinto beans freeze very well and can be stored in the freezer for up to three months.
To freeze these pinto beans, prepare the recipe fully and let it completely cool. Place beans in freezer bags and remove extra air. Freeze flat and thaw in the refrigerator when ready to enjoy. Reheat on the stovetop over low heat, adding a splash of water or broth to thin it out.
What to Serve with Crock Pot Pinto Beans
When you try this recipe or any of my others, leave a comment and tell me what you think. I love hearing from you!
Recipe Video
Crock Pot Pinto Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry pinto beans sorted and rinsed
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 1 jalapeno pepper diced with ribs and seeds removed
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth see note
Instructions
- Place the dry beans in a large bowl the night before making this recipe, and cover them with two inches of water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. (See note about skipping soaking.) In the morning, drain the beans and rinse them two times.1 pound dry pinto beans
- In a large slow cooker (at least 6 quarts), add the beans and the remaining ingredients.1 small yellow onion, 1 jalapeno pepper, 4 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours or until beans are tender.
- At the end of the cooking time, you can keep the beans whole and use them as a side dish, as a taco filling, or over rice. You can also mash them and use them in place of refried beans.
Notes
Teresa Simms says
The recipes you share are always so down-home. Love your sharing!
I’m so glad you are enjoying them!
Teddie Hanophy says
I recently tried your Crock Pot Spaghetti. Since I would be serving only three I cut the recipe in half and cooked it in my medium size Proctor Silex Crock Pot. My measurements were exactly half of everything, including half of a box of Barilla regular spaghetti. I cooked on low for exactly four hours. All of the liquid was absorbed and the spaghetti was mush. Obviously the cooking time was too long. I have no idea how to calculate a lesser time. Any suggestions?
Crockpot recipes with noodles or rice are so hard because slow cookers can vary so much. So I have to just go off what works in mine. If you cut everything in half in a slow cooker recipe with rice or pasta, I would immediately shave an hour off of the low end of the cooking time. Start checking the recipe at that point.
MJ Hawe says
Easy and excellent beans. And coming from a Texan that says a lot.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Joni says
These have wonderful flavor and are very easy to make!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Nan says
We love beans in our house and I can’t wait to try your recipe. I’ve never cooked beans in the slow cooker. I always pre-soak but have never put them in the fridge to pre-soak. I’m curious about the reason to do this in the fridge?
It’s just an abundance of caution.
Lizzy says
How would you do this in an instant pot? Do you have adaptation suggestions? Thank you
You would want to cut the liquid down because there will be no evaporation, but I would want to test it.
Linda says
I have recently purchased air fryer oven and was curious if you have any recipes for it? Or if not, do you have suggestions on how to adjust the cook times for recipes from the regular oven. Thank you!
We have lots of great air fryer recipes, you can find them here: Air Fryer Recipes.
Pegged says
I always soak and rinse thoroughly because it helps leach out some of the potassium. Those with kidney disease or kidney problems need to avoid using excess potassium. Peggy Deaux
Dee says
I think I may have added too much broth, (and I used white beans because it’s what I had on hand) so mine looks more like a soup! The flavor is good, but I was hoping for a more ‘stewy’/thicker texture to serve over rice as a meatless meal. Do you ever use the crockpot without the lid to aide in evaporation? Definitely not as aesthetically pleasing, but as I said, good flavor. I kept re-reading the recipe thinking I left out tomato sauce or diced tomatoes based on how your finished dish looks.
When I make this recipe it isn’t a soupy texture, so I’m not sure what happened here (I keep the lid fully on when it cooks). It could be the difference in beans (or definitely the broth if too much was added). The little red bits on top are diced fresh red peppers just to make the pictures look prettier, honestly. But they aren’t needed for flavor at all.
Susan says
What about using black eyed peas instead of pinto beans? Would they work just as good if you followed the same recipe?
I would want to test them to ensure that this cooking time works for them.