Side Dish – Plum Cooking.com

Cook The Best Dry Pinto Beans On The Stove

Karen and Denny's Kitchen — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 04:26:27 +0000

Dry Beans Save You Money

Every 15 or 16-ounce can of pinto beans equals about 1½ cups of cooked beans, drained.

2 cups of dry pinto beans = 1 pound of dry pinto beans.

1 pound of dry pinto beans = about six cups (or 4 cans) of cooked beans, drained.

The cost of 1 pound of dry pinto beans is roughly the same (or less) than that of a single can of cooked pinto beans.

Officially, dried pinto beans have a minimum shelf life of one to two years, according to the USDA. Unofficially, they keep pretty much forever. Dried beans are considered non-perishable

2 Ingredient Pinto Beans

All you really need are just two ingredients to cook pinto beans

Dry Pinto Beans

Water

Cooking pinto beans on the stove is easy to do, tastes so much better than canned beans from the store, and as a bonus, it’s cheaper as well.

There are literally hundreds of other ingredients you can add to this simple bean recipe to make your special dish but not only are they completely optional, but they also don’t have to be added right away.

Not only are beans easy to make, but they are also nutritious, filling, and incredibly versatile! They can be used as a side dish or added to other dinner recipes like burritos, tostadas, soups, stews, and so much more.

I have been making this very simple pinto bean recipe for years. Then once I have the beans cooked up and ready to go, I can use them later in other recipes. This way I have all the convenience of those canned beans from the supermarket but for a fraction of the cost.

Once you start getting into a routine of making and having pinto beans cooked up and ready to go, they will quickly become a staple around your kitchen.

Optional Seasonings

Of course, there are a number of seasonings you may want to routinely add to your basic pinto bean recipe, (especially if you plan to eat the pot of beans right away) the most obvious being salt.

Salt helps to bring out and enhance the natural flavors of just about any food but it is not necessary for this basic pinto bean recipe. They will cook up and store just fine without a single grain added. Then you can simply add salt according to your other recipes later.

But, You Could Add:

1 teaspoon of salt and then adjust as needed.

1/2 onion diced or minced

3 or 4 cloves of minced garlic

How To Cook Dry Pinto Beans

Start By Sorting Your Beans

The easiest way to sort your beans that I have ever found is to spread a towel across the countertop. A plain white tea towel is ideal for this but any towel will work.

Then spread your beans out into a single layer on the towel and pick out any rocks, shriveled up, or even split beans and discard them.

My simple rule is if it doesn’t look like the other 500 beans laying there, it’s out of there.

Rinse Your Beans

Pour your beans into a strainer or colander and rinse with cold water to remove any small unseen debris from the beans.

Soak your beans

Place your rinsed beans into a jar or bowl and cover them with at least two or three inches of water. Cover the jar and leave it on the counter in a cool place out of any direct sunlight for at least 8 hours. Overnight works great. If you prefer to soak them in your refrigerator you can but the soaking time will take longer.

Soaking your beans not only allows them to rehydrate, but soaking also helps them to cook more evenly and cuts down on the overall cooking time.

Discard The Soaking Water

Once your beans have been soaked overnight you will see that they have just about doubled in size. Pour them back into a strainer or colander and discard the water they soaked in. I usually give them a quick second rinse at this point.

To Cook Your Beans

Rinse your soaked pinto beans, place them into a large pot and cover them with add about 2 1/2 quarts of fresh clean water. (This is also the perfect time to add any of those additional seasonings if you’re just planning to eat them tonight.)

Bring the beans to a boil, reduce the heat to a medium-low simmer, cover and cook for 2 or 3 hours checking the water level and stirring occasionally.

After about 2 hours give them a quick taste. They should be tender with a soft smooth texture. If not, let them cook for another 30 to 60 minutes or until they’ve cooked through to the level you are looking for.

Storing Cooked Pinto Beans

Short Term Storage

Your cooked pinto beans will keep for about 4 days in the refrigerator. For best results let beans cool completely and use an airtight container.

Long Term Storage

Your cooked pinto beans will easily keep in the freezer for at least 4 to 6 months. For best results in the freezer use freezer-safe containers or freezer bags removing as much air as possible.

A Few Ideas For Using Cooked Pinto Beans

Refried Beans

Add to Burritos

Taco Salads

Beans and Franks

Ham and Beans

Use as a side dish

Add To Salads

Add to Soups

Chili

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Great Classic Chicken Salad Recipe

Karen and Denny's Kitchen — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 17:05:37 +0000

Classic Chicken Salad Recipe

On A Croissant

Quick and simple

This recipe may seem basic but is both delicious and easy to make. If you make it ahead and keep it in the refrigerator it is great anytime for sandwiches, quick appetizers, salads, and more.

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Easy Baked Acorn Squash

Karen and Denny's Kitchen — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 12:39:31 +0000

Baked Acorn Squash With Brown Sugar And Butter

Simple And Delicious

There are probably more ways to cook squash than there are varieties of squash out there, but one of my favorites will always be baked this way.

We make ours with homemade butter, homemade brown sugar, and natural maple syrup. I gotta say, when it comes to this particular squash, I think it’s hard to beat.

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Easy Homemade Mashed Potato Recipe

Karen and Denny's Kitchen — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 04:15:40 +0000

Follow this easy homemade mashed potatoes recipe and you’ll never need to buy those frozen, or instant mashed potatoes again!

My Favorite Mashed Potato Recipe

For me, potatoes are just one of those all-time favorite comfort foods. There are endless ways to prepare them alone, and no end to the number of ways to use them in other recipes.

One of my favorite recipes though has got to be mashed potatoes. Quick, simple, and so easy to make.

Side Dish Recipes

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Easy Wrapped and Roasted Garlic Scapes

Karen and Denny's Kitchen — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 14:34:49 +0000

Roasted garlic scapes are a great way to use fresh garlic scapes are in season.

Wrapped And Roasted Garlic Scapes

Freshly roasted garlic scapesare easy to make and there are several ways to do it. When you make roasted garlic scaFes the flower head gets a kind of stringy texture to it, so you will want to trim those off and discard them or chop them up for use in a different recipe. Wash and clean the scapes placing them in a large bowl. Add your olive oil and massage the scapes with salt. Lay out a large piece of aluminum foil and wrap the garlic scapes tightly in the foil. You can toss them on the grill or lay the package on a sheet pan in a hot oven to roast them

Why Don’t They Sell Garlic Scapes In The Store

Of course you can’t make roasted garlic scapes if you can’t find garlic scapes.

First, they typically have to cut the garlic scape off the plant by hand, but you can find garlic scapes in some markets, especially farmer’s markets.
You’ll have to be quick about purchasing your garlic scapes because garlic scapes are a very short-season crop. If you find them at all, it will likely be in the last few weeks of June.

The First Problem, store-bought sour cream is cheaper because they reduce the cost of making the sour cream by adding regular milk instead of cream along with a lot of thickening agents, starches, and gums, among other more artificial ingredients.

The Second Problem is, When you find a quality store-bought sour cream that doesn’t contain all the added junk, the price tends to become prohibitive. Therefore you do not save any money by making it yourself, so unless you’re just experimenting, you may as well have just purchased the cultured butter.

When, Where, and How To Plant Garlic

One great solution for having freshly roasted garlic scapes is to grow your own garlic.

While you can plant garlic in the early spring, garlic, people will usually plant it during the cool of fall as temperatures begin to come down.

Zones 1-4 plant bulbs in late October – November.
Zones 5-7 September – October
Zones 8-9 November – December(In Zone 8-9) You’ll need to store your garlic bulbs in the refrigerator for at least a couple of months before planting them, allowing the garlic to go through the vernalization process of a cold winter.

To grow garlic in 1 year, you will want to plant garlic cloves instead of seeds.

You can plant 4-9 garlic gloves per sq. foot in a garden bed, raised bed, planter boxes, or even in pots, and the bulbs will grow throughout the fall, winter, and spring. I usually plant 5 leaving plenty of room for the bulbs to grow. Cover them with a few inches of leaves or straw for the winter and rake most of that back in the spring.

Buy garlic for planting here

Best Ways To Preserve Garlic Scapes

Karen and Denny's Kitchen — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 17:16:00 +0000

Fresh garlic scapes are only available for a few weeks a year, so having a way to preserve them and be able to use them throughout the year is a must.

Preserving Garlic Scapes

Plus Great Recipe Ideas

So What The Heck Are Garlic Scapes Anyway

There are several varieties of garlic available that fit into two basic categories.

Soft Neck Garlic
Hard Neck Garlic

No matter the variety when you plant garlic, your goal is to grow big beautiful garlic bulbs.

Both categories of garlic have unique features of their own. In the case of hard-neck garlic, you also have a stem and flower bud growing from the center of the plant. This stem and flower bud are known as a garlic scape.

To focus the plant’s energy on growing larger garlic bulbs rather than on producing seeds, you’ll want to cut the garlic scape off the plant before the bulb begins to open. It’s a good rule of thumb to watch for the scape to curl over and then cut them off.

Why Don’t They Sell Garlic Scapes In The Store

When, Where and How To Plant Garlic

While you can plant garlic in the early spring, garlic, people will usually plant during the cool of fall as temperatures begin to come down.

To grow garlic in 1 year, you will want to plant garlic cloves instead of seeds.

Buy garlic for planting here

When To Harvest Garlic Scapes

As soon as you see the garlic scapes curl around, you will want to cut them off or break them from the plant. Where I live in the north, the garlic scapes usually show up around mid-June to early July or about 4 to 6 weeks before the garlic bulbs are ready to harvest.

How To Preserve Garlic Scapes

Fresh garlic scapes are only available for a few weeks a year, so having a way to preserve them and be able to use them throughout the year is a must. Throughout the rest of this article, you’ll find several ideas for storing your garlic scapes and recipes for enjoying them year after year.

Storing Garlic Scapes Fresh

Countertop:

Add a few inches of cool water to a mason jar and place the freshly cut ends of a handful of scapes down into the water. Store on your counter for a few days to use fresh.

This is probably the easiest thing to do. If you change the water daily they will Keep 4 or 5 days!

Refrigerator Storage

Properly stored in the refrigerator, your garlic scapes will keep for up to a month or even more.

Good Method

Store them whole and unwashed and in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel in the bag. When stored this way in the “crisper drawer” of your refrigerator, they should keep up to 2 to 3 weeks.

Better Method

I’d have to say the FridgeSmart line made by Tupperware is hands down the best method I have ever found for storing most produce in the refrigerator, and garlic scapes are no exception. With the FridgeSmart setting on the half-open position on any shelf of your refrigerator, you should get 4 to 6 weeks out of those garlic scapes.

Freezing

Do not blanch your garlic scapes. Instead, wash and completely dry them before freezing them raw.

There are several ways to freeze your scapes.

One method is to chop them up by hand into small, chive-sized pieces, or better still, you can run them through the food processor until you reach the desired consistency. Place them into freezer-safe containers, or freezer bags and flatten to remove all the air from the bag before closing.

Storing these bags of summertime goodness flat in the freezer allows you to stack several bags into a small space in your freezer. Then when you want to use some in a recipe, you can just open a bag and break off what you need and then reseal the rest for later use.

Stored this way; your garlic scapes should keep up to a year.

Other methods of freezing garlic scapes include making and freezing things like pesto or compound butter. You can learn more about these methods in the upcoming recipes.

Pickle Your Garlic Scapes

You can make refrigerated pickled garlic scapes simply by using vinegar, spice, and salt, then placing the jar(s) in the refrigerator.
Or, you could go all out by water bath canning several jars at a time to make your pickled scapes shelf-stable and should keep on your pantry shelves for years.
They go great with grilled meals like burgers, hot dogs, and more, so serve them like any dill pickle.

Great Recipe Ideas For Your Fresh Garlic Scapes

Wrapped & Roasted Garlic Scapes
Garlic Scape Compound Butter – Coming Soon