Give Instant Pot Pinto Beans A Kick Of Spice With Fresh Peppers

The Instant Pot is a great tool for cooking flavor-packed beans. You can transform this cheap protein by infusing your beans with a fresh, spicy kick from peppers. Tasting Table recipe developer Miriam Hahn uses this trick to create her fiery Instant Pot pinto beans. The fiery part of this recipe comes from fresh jalapeños that are cooked with the beans. Hahn also opts to use dried beans instead of canned. This not only provides a fresher, longer-lasting meal but also gives you better control over the flavor and texture of your dish.

Hahn notes that you can control how spicy your pinto beans are by how many peppers you add. "If you want the beans extra hot, add 2 jalapeños or opt for a serrano pepper which is a bit hotter," Hahn says. If you're worried about making your beans too spicy, you could go with only half a jalapeño for a milder heat. Another way to temper the spice is to be thorough in removing the seeds from your peppers since the seeds are coated in additional capsaicin, which provides the heat.

Hahn suggests using a serrano pepper if you want more heat in your beans, but you can get creative with the peppers you opt to use. There are dozens of different peppers that provide unique spice and flavor to your dish, letting you change up the flavors of your beans each time you make them. You can add depth of flavor to your beans by using a green hatch chile. These regional chiles are smoky and spicy, giving an interesting new flavor to your dish.

Another unique pepper you could use is the cascabel pepper. This small, bell-shaped pepper packs a big flavor punch. It's mild in heat compared to other peppers but has a unique nutty flavor, which can bring out the earthiness of your pinto beans and create a savory, rustic vibe. You can experiment by using different combinations of peppers to create different flavor notes, and the Instant Pot makes this an easy recipe to try again and again in different ways.