Easy Beans (In Rice Cooker)

Random Rachel's Note:

Dry beans, cooked in your rice cooker. Faster and easier than the crockpot, no need to soak. Its easy to freeze portions, and much cheaper than buying canned beans. If you are just going to eat them, I would highly recommend adding the optional stuff, they are pretty blah alone. Update after some reviews: I make these all the time and they never take over 2 hours, but it may be that my rice cooker cooks at a higher temperature than others. They keep pretty well if you leave them on the 'warm' mode, so maybe you should start them early the first time to see how they do in your rice cooker. You can add onion, butter, meat, etc in with the beans at the beginning, but it will probably be mushy when the beans are done. I have made the mistake of adding tomatoes to start with, and the beans will not cook at all if you do that. :)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 lb

• 1 lb dry pinto beans
• 5 cups water
• 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (optional)
• 2 tablespoons butter (optional) or 2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (optional)
• 3/4 cup water (optional) or 3/4 cup broth (optional)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse beans. (I just cut the top of the sack off, poke a hole in the bottom, and fill it with water.).
2. Place beans and water in rice cooker, switch to on. Check occasionally to see if additional water is needed, or to see if your rice cooker has switched to 'warm' mode too early.
3. After two hours, enjoy in another recipe, or add optional ingredients and simmer 15 more minutes. It is VERY IMPORTANT that the tomatoes get added AFTER the beans have cooked- the beans will not soften if you add the tomatoes at the beginning!
4. Add additional goodies as desired- bacon, ham, peppers, veggies, spices, etc. - there are tons of things that go well with beans :-).

Reviews

[MomLuvs6]

Thanks for an easy recipe to cook beans. Cooked mine for 2 1/2 hours with another cup of water. Added cumin and chili powder with the tomatoes. Made refried beans. Made for ZWT7~Emerald City Shakers

[MeredithYeverino]

Thanks! This is a great use for my ricecooker! The beans came out great... I put in a package of taco seasoning to boost the flavor. Yum!

[Linajjac]

This did work.. But mine took 2 1/2 hours and additional water after the 1 1/2 of cooking needed to be added. For me, that wasn't a big deal. My rice cooker has a cook and a warm setting. Next time, I'll make sure it doesn't switch over to the warm setting, while the beans are cooking the first hour. I have a feeling I'll be making my beans in the rice cooker for now on. I did add the optional ingredients after the beans were done. Along with leftover sliced brats, roasted jalapenos, garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper and served over white rice. (Nice filling lunch, for all the teens that ended up at my house.) Thanks. :)