Ranch Beans

If you haven't yet tried a bowl of Ranch beans what are you waiting for? Have a bowl of beans with a nice warm piece of cornbread is a meal in it's self considering the bacon (or ham) that is part of the recipe you can have a meal in a bowl. The spices used in the beans you probably already have in your spice cabinet and most everyone in the South and Southwest have a few bags of pinto beans in the cupboard. So are you ready to get started? Great!

You can prepare you beans in one of two ways, the quick method and the overnight method. With this recipe I use the overnight method to soak the beans than cooked in' a pressure cooker set to high pressure for 3-4 minutes and let pressure to drop naturally.

Here is what you need:

1/2 pound of bacon cooked until crisped or cooked ham.
1 pound of beans (2.25 cups)
4-5 tomatoes chopped
2 medium white onions (or yellow if you like)
2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced (or equivalent crushed garlic)
1 Tablespoon =/-, chili powder
1/2 teaspoon +/- each, oregano and Cumin
Salt & pepper

Destructions:

1. Fry bacon until crispy while cooking chop onions, tomato and garlic add to pot of beans followed by enough water to cover with an additional inch of water.

2. Add remaining spices except salt and stir. Add salt after cooking is completed or beans may be hard.

3. Add crispy bacon to cooking vessel and stir to mix all ingredients together than seal pressure cooker and cook for 3 minutes once completed allow to naturally cool down.

As a note if you know that your beans are old you will require a longer cooking time. If by chance the beans are not soft after cooking just return beans to pressure for an additional 3 minutes and once again let cool naturally.

You can add any other ingredient that you wish to the recipe, below are some suggestions.

1 chopped and seeded jalapeno
Cilantro
1 Habanero, seeded and chopped
Creen chili's
Smoked ham
Chorizo

I hope you enjoy