Pinto Bean with Spinach and Potato, served with Supergrain Garden Pagoda Pasta (No Added Fat)

I wanted to make a pinto bean dish today. Here is what I did.


Ingredients

• 1 cup pinto beans, rinsed, soaked for at least 5 hours, and rinsed again
• Enough water to just cover beans
• 2 Yukon Gold potatoes cut into 1/2" cubes (about 2 cups)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1t finely chopped ginger
• 1/2 t turmeric
• 1 1/4 cup chopped spinach (I used frozen but fresh would be fine)
• 1 1/4 cup onion cut into 3/8" cubes
• 1 3/4 cups (large bell pepper) bell pepper cut into 3/8" cubes
• Juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon)
• 1/2 t (or to taste) salt

Process

1. I had my wife put the beans, water, potato, garlic, ginger, and turmeric into my Instant Pot pressure cooker and set it to cook for 30m.
2. After the cooking was done, I waited a few minutes and gently released pressure, then mixed in the spinach, onion, bell pepper, lime juice, and salt, and served, topped with a bit of salsa (no salsa for my daughter's portion).

I also made some "supergrain garden pagoda pasta" which has as all organic ingredients of corn flour, quinoa flour, dried spinach, and dried beet and/or dried red bell pepper. I served that on the side with a bit of nutritional yeast (marinara for my daughter).

Results

Dinner was good! We all enjoyed it. The potatoes added a nice soft but relatively neutral tasting texture.

Ideas for the future

I could have added more vegetables, such as possibly broccoli or corn, but the dish was good as I made it. My wife had forgotten to include a vegan bouillon cube when she cooked the beans; it would have added a bit more flavor. Were I not cooking for my daughter, some jalapeno would have gone well with the main course.