Roasted Tomatillo and Jalapeno Pinto Bean Soup
This meatless pinto bean soup is made with slow cooked dried pinto beans, roasted tomatillos, jalapenos, onion and spices. And it's served topped with cheese, salsa or your favorite topping.
Ingredients
Cooking the Dried Pinto Beans:
- 1 pound (about 2 cups) dried pinto beans
- 5 dashes salt
- 5 dashes ground black pepper
- Water enough to fill the pot 3/4's full (with the beans in the pot)
- Water additional water to fill the pot as the beans cook and the liquid reduces
For the Roasted Tomatillos, Jalapeno and Onion
- 7 (medium size) tomatillos peeled, stems removed and washed;
- 1 cup cut onion (coarse large cuts) white or yellow onion
- 1 large or 2 medium size jalapenos (or more for additional spicy heat) seeds/stem removed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (only if using an uncoated skillet). If using a non-stick skillet, olive oil should not be needed.
- 1 cup water for blending the roasted vegetables
For the Soup (added when the beans are tender):
- Blended roasted vegetables
- 1-1/2 teaspoons granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (or add to taste) before serving add more salt if needed
For the Toppings:
- 1 tablespoon finely crumbled queso fresco (Mexican cheese) per serving or add to taste
- Toppings of your choice such as chopped onion, tomato, cilantro, avocado, shredded cheese or salsa
Equipment
- 8-Quart stock pot
- A large skillet
Instructions
Preparing the Dried Pinto Beans:
- Sort the Beans – Remove and discard any bad beans (broken, off-colored, shriveled), debris, pebbles, rocks or foreign material.Rinse the Beans – Place the sorted beans in a colander or strainer and rinse them under cold water.
- Soak the Beans - Transfer the beans to a large bowl or pot and add water to about 3/4’s full. Soak the beans for 5 hours. Every 45 minutes to an hour, drain the beans, discard the water, and refill the soaking container (with the beans in it) with fresh water.
- Once the pinto beans are done soaking, drain out and discard the water.
Cooking the Dried Pinto Beans:
- In a large pot add hot water to about half full. To the water, add salt and heat the pot on low heat (just enough heat to simmer the beans).
- To the pot, carefully add the soaked and drained pinto beans. After adding the beans, if the water level is lower than 3/4’s full, add just enough water to bring up the level to 3/4’s full.
- Stir the beans periodically as they cook. Keep a close eye on the pot of beans as it simmers because the water level will decrease.
- When the water level in the pot decreases by about 2 inches, add more water to bring the level back up to 3/4’s full. More water may need to be added 2 or 3 times while the beans are simmering.
- Continue to watch the pot of beans closely to make sure that there's still water in the pot (don’t let the pot run out of water or the beans will burn).Cook the beans until they're tender (about 2 to 2-1/2 hours).
- After 2 Hours of Cooking, Check the Beans for Tenderness - Use a large, slotted spoon to scoop out a couple of beans and place them onto a plate. When they're cool enough to eat, taste them to make sure they're tender. If not, continue to simmer the beans. As soon as the beans are tender, the blended roasted vegetables and spices are added to the pot to make the soup.
Prepare the Vegetables (while the beans are cooking):
- Onion - Coarsely cut the onion in larger size pieces.Tomatillos - Remove the husks and stems from the tomatillos. Then rinse the tomatillos in water to remove the stickiness. Cut in quarters.Jalapeno - Cut the jalapeno peppers in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Coarsely cut the jalapeno in large pieces. Be careful not to touch the inside of the jalapenos with your bare hands.
Roasting the Vegetables:
- If using an uncoated skillet such as stainless steel or ceramic, add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (or more if needed) to the pan before heating it.If using a non-stick skillet, olive oil should not be needed.
- Heat a large skillet on medium heat. To the skillet, add cut tomatillos, jalapeno and onion. Occasionally stir the vegetables so they'll char or brown on all sides. Once the vegetables have charred on all sides, turn off heat and remove the pan from the burner.
Blending the Roasted Vegetables:
- Transfer the roasted vegetables into a blender and add water. Blend on low speed until combined. The ingredients in the blender will be hot so it’s important to use caution when blending because steam can build up and blow the lid off of the blender.
When the Beans are Tender, Make the Pinto Bean Soup:
- Once the beans are tender (after cooking about 2 hours) let the water level in the pot reduce to a little over 1/2 full. Then add the blended roasted vegetables to the pot.
- To the pot, add granulated garlic, dried oregano, ground cumin, salt and ground black pepper. Stir together. Simmer another 30 minutes while stirring occasionally.
- Let the water decrease in the pot to about 1/2 full or to the desired consistency for the soup without refilling it.
- If the soup is too thick, add more water, if the soup is too thin, let it simmer a little longer. Once the desired consistency is reached, carefully do a taste test and add salt to taste.
Serve:
- Serve warm topped with crumbled queso fresco or toppings such as avocado, tomatoes, onion, shredded sharp cheddar cheese or Monterey jack cheese.
Notes
TIPS
- Soaking the Dried Pinto Beans - Changing out and replacing the water that the beans are soaking in may help with “de-gassing” the beans.
- Cooking the Beans - As the beans cook in the pot, watch the pot closely to make sure that there is still water in the pot (don’t let the pot run out of water or the beans will burn).
- Size of Cut Onions - Larger pieces of cut onion are best so that it doesn't cook faster than the other vegetables in the skillet.
- Cutting the Jalapeno - Be careful not to touch the inside of the jalapenos with your bare hands.
- Cooking the Vegetables - Before cooking the vegetables, an option is to turn the vent above the stove on so that the smell of the peppers isn’t too strong.
- Skillet for the Vegetables - If using an uncoated skillet such as stainless steel or ceramic, add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (or more if needed) to the pan before heating it. If using a non-stick skillet, olive oil should not be needed.
- Blending the Roasted Vegetables - The ingredients in the blender will be hot so it’s important to use caution when blending because steam can build up and blow the lid off of the blender.
- For the Soup - If the soup is too thick, add more water, if the soup is too thin, let it simmer a little longer.