These Instant Pot Smashed Pinto Beans are creamy, flavorful, and so easy to make! You can cook them directly from dried beans with no soaking, or use a quick soak method for a shorter cook time. Perfect as a Mexican-inspired side dish, a dip with tortilla chips, or a filling for tacos and burritos.
The combination of the Instant Pot and dried Pinto Beans is a match made in heaven!
Recipe at a Glance
- Ready In: 45 to 55 minutes
- Equipment: Instant Pot and Immersion Blender
- Ingredients: Dried pinto beans, veggies, seasoning, chicken broth, and water
- Makes: 6 servings
- Difficulty: Easy
- Make-Ahead Friendly: Yes
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Why You Should Make This Recipe
- Easy to Make: This recipe is easy to make with minimal preparation.
- Economical: The ingredients that go into making this recipe are inexpensive.
- Versatile: Once made, these Smashed Pinto Beans can be used in a variety of other dishes. For example, try them in a quesadilla, taco, burrito, or as a dip with chips.
Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need
This awesome recipe produces a delicious combination of flavors.
- Pinto Beans: The key ingredient in this recipe was dried pinto beans. You can use pinto beans with or without soaking. Either way, they cook in no time at all with the Instant Pot.
- Vegetables: To add flavor to this amazing recipe, I used an onion, fresh jalapeño pepper, and fresh garlic.
- Seasonings: The seasonings were simple - Kosher salt, dried cumin, and freshly ground black pepper.
- Liquids: For the liquids, I used chicken broth and water.
Preparing the Ingredients
This recipe required minimal preparation.
- First, I rinsed the pinto beans and let them drain. This time, I decided to use the quick soak method which involved covering the dried bean with water, allowing them to boil for 2 minutes, and then allowing them to soak for about an hour. With this method, it's important to drain the beans and give them a good rinse.
- Next, I removed the spine and seeds from the jalapeño pepper and chopped it.
- Then, I peeled the onion and cut it into fourths.
- Finally, I peeled and minced the garlic.
Cooking the Pinto Beans in the Instant Pot
- Add ingredients to the Instant Pot: Start by adding the beans, onion, jalapeño, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, chicken broth, and water to the Instant Pot.
- Pressure cook: Seal the lid on the Instant Pot and close the steam valve. For unsoaked bean, cook on Bean/Chili or Manual High Pressure for 30 minutes; natural release. For quick-soaked beans, cook on Manual High Pressure for 18 minutes; natural release.
- Reserve liquid: Remove about 1 cup of liquid and set it aside. As the beans cool, they thicken. The reserved liquid can be added later as needed to adjust thickness.
- Smash the beans: Then, use an immersion blender to smash the beans until creamy. Add the reserved liquid as needed to adjust the thickness. Taste and correct seasonings.
Whether you cook them from dried or quick-soak them first, these Instant Pot Smashed Pinto Beans are creamy, flavorful, and endlessly versatile. They’re perfect for Cinco de Mayo, taco night, or anytime you need an easy appetizer or budget-friendly side dish.
Once you make them from scratch, you’ll never go back to canned beans again!
Frequently Asked Questions
My Instant Pot is the DUO60 6-Quart Pot.
The main difference between smashed pinto beans and regular pinto beans is the consistency. Smashed pinto beans are mashed and creamy, while regular pinto beans have a firmer texture.
Smashed pinto beans can be served as a side dish, as a dip with chips or veggies, as a topping for tacos or burritos, as a filling for quesadillas, or as a spread for sandwiches or wraps.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Why dried pinto beans: I've consistently used dried pinto beans in this recipe. Dried pinto beans that have been cooked from scratch will result in a better flavor and texture compared to using canned beans.
- Cooled smashed pinto beans thicken: I've consistently found that the Smashed Pinto Beans thicken considerably as they cool. As the beans cool, the starches in the beans begin to gel and bind together, which makes the consistency of the mashed beans thicker. Therefore, even though I remove liquid before smashing the beans, I end up adding most or all of the liquid back once the beans cool.
- No soaking required: I've tried this recipe using pinto beans that I've quick-soaked and have found that the soaking isn't necessary when the beans are cooked in the Instant Pot.
- Vegetarian version: You can easily make this recipe vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth or water for the chicken broth.
If you'd like other Cinco de Mayo Recipes, you should check out my Cinco de Mayo Recipe Roundup, where you'll find 39 of my and Grits and Pinecones incredible recipes.
This is a repost from a year ago. For this repost, I quick soaked the beans. In the prior post, I used the beans unsoaked. Both methods will work. This repost, however, contains new photos, updated text, and a video.
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Instant Pot Mexican Smashed Pinto Beans
Ingredients
- 2 cups (16 ounces) dried pinto beans, rinsed and picked over (See Tip 1)
- 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into quarters
- 1 jalapeño pepper, spine and seeds removed and chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon dried cumin
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth (See Tip 2)
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in Instant Pot. Cover, making sure that the steam vent is closed. Select Bean/Chili. This setting is for 30 minutes on normal pressure.
- At end of cooking cycle, allow Instant Pot to depressurize normally. Remove lid. Stir to combine ingredients.
- Remove about 1 cup of liquid; set aside.
- Process beans with an immersion blender until smooth. If necessary, add reserved liquid to the desired consistency. Correct seasonings. (See Tip 3)
- Yield: 6 servings (See Tip 4)
Video
Tips/Notes
- Sometimes, I'll make this without soaking the beans, and other times, I'll use a quick soak. With the quick soak, reduce the cooking time to 18 minutes.
- To make this vegetarian, substitute water or vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
- As the smashed beans cool, they thicken considerably. Therefore, hold on to the reserved liquid. You'll probably need some of it to thin out the mixture.
- As you can probably tell from the picture, I love to put shredded cheese on top of the hot Smashed Pinto Beans and use tortilla chips to scoop it up!
Lorna says
I have made this recipe three or four times in the last month. The first time I had my niece and her kids over. They all loved it and so do I. My husband keeps asking me to make it a day or two after it’s gone. So that’s why I made it so many times in the last month.
It is a very easy recipe and it comes out amazing every time.
Chula King says
Lorna,
This is one of my favorite recipes. So glad that it works out for you!
Chula
Beverly Christopher says
Will be making this
Renee Dahlstrom says
Easy Peasy. Thank you from my heart. Some of us have hand struggles. This really helps. Love the recip
Chula King says
So glad you liked the recipe Renee. These smashed pinto beans are one of my favorites!
Chula
Bev says
Made these exactly as stated. Let them cool and sit in fridge overnight. The beans had soaked up the broth and I just used my immersion blender. Absolutely delicious, will make again and again.
Chula King says
Excellent Bev!
Chula
Debbie says
Just made these and they turned out great!! Thanks for sharing such an easy and delicious recipe.
PudgeFactor says
Debbie,
I'm so glad that it turned out well for you. It's one of my favorite recipes!
Chula
Deanna says
What can you add if to soupy?
PudgeFactor says
In my experience, the beans thicken up quite a bit as they cool. I generally remove about a cup of the liquid when I start processing, but invariably add most if not all of it back as I further process the beans. If they stay soupy after being processed, you might think about adding some canned pinto beans to the mixture.
Holly Beck says
Did you remove the onion pieces or leave them in?
PudgeFactor says
Holly, I left them. They were fall-apart cooked and blended perfectly into the rest of the smashed pinto bean mixture.
Chula
Lisa says
Do you soak your beans first? This recipe looks amazing! I also have all these ingredients on hand, but am omitting the pancetta.
PudgeFactor says
Lisa, I don't soak the beans. I just wash them and put them into the instant pot with the rest of the ingredients. This is one of my favorite recipes! Hope it turns out well for you.
Chula
Dan McCrea says
Excellent...
Thank you...
PudgeFactor says
I'm so glad that you liked them. I made some this weekend!
Kristina says
I don’t have an imersion blender can I use a food processed or my vitamin?
PudgeFactor says
Yes - just process the pinto beans in stages rather than doing all of them at one time. You don't want to over-fill the food processor or blender.
Anne says
I followed this recipe exactly and the beans were not cooke after the 30 min on bean/chili setting and a 15” release. I don’t like those presets. Recipes are never cooked. Sticking with manual from now on. I put them back on to cook on manual for 20” I’ll see how it goes.
PudgeFactor says
I'm sorry to hear that. They are always perfect for me. One thing that I've found with the Instant Pot is that slow cooker function never works for me, but the pressure cooker function works great. Anyway, I'm sorry that it didn't work for you.
Srey rawlins says
Hello, if i double the recipe, is it the same time?
PudgeFactor says
Yes, the time will be the same. Just be sure that you don't over fill the Instant Pot.