This creamy pinto bean dip made with cream cheese and caramelised onions is delicious and healthy, perfect as an appetizer, finger food or a snack. Serve with your favorite corn chips, crackers, vegetable sticks or as a side dish with tacos, burritos or Mexican rice. We show you how to make Instant Pot pinto beans and the onions and how to puree it all together into a tasty dip. You can also use a stovetop to make this recipe.
For this dip recipe, we are using the Instant Pot to cook the pinto beans (which is much faster than the stovetop) as well as sauteeing the caramelized onions. The dip is then finished in the pot by blending all ingredients into a smooth puree mixture.
While we love the pressure cooker to save time and to avoid using the hob in the summertime, you can absolutely use the stovetop method to cook the beans and onions, which we have provided in the recipe card below.
HOW TO MAKE THIS PINTO BEAN IN THE INSTANT POT
You will find the full list of ingredients, instructions and nutritional breakdown in the recipe card below. Here is a handy video showing you how to make this pinto bean dip using the Instant Pot pressure cooker.
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Creamy Pinto Bean Dip With Caramelized Onions
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry pinto beans 5-6 oz. / 150 g, soaked overnight or for 6-8 hours
- 500 ml vegetable stock or water and vegetable stock powder
- 2-3 cloves garlic roughly diced
- 2 bay leaves
For Caramelized Onions
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 large onion halved and sliced thinly
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon chipotle chili flakes or another type of chili
Other ingredients
- ⅓ cup cream cheese you can use light cream cheese to reduce calories
Instructions
- Soak the beans. Add dry pinto beans to a large bowl or a pot and cover with 3 cups water. Soak overnight. The beans will almost double in size.
- Cook the pinto beans in Instant Pot. Strain the beans, add to the Instant Pot together with 2 cups of veggie stock, 2 bay leaves and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Stir through. Pop the lid on top, lock and make sure the top valve is pointing at Sealing (on regular models). Press Manual/Pressure Cook and set to 10 minutes at HIGH pressure. Once cooked, allow the pressure to release for 7-10 minutes. If cooking unsoaked beans, set to 30 minutes at high pressure.
- Stovetop. Repeat the first step but in a large cooking pot and place over high heat. Once the beans come to a boil, turn the heat down to simmer and cook for 45-50 minutes until tender.
- While the beans are cooking, prepare the caramelized onions and the rest of the ingredients for the dip.
- Make caramelized onions. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and butter and add the onions and salt. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring every second minute until onions are softened. If the bottom starts to dry out and brown, add a splash or two of water, which will deglaze the pan and help to soften and steam the onions.
- After about 8-10 minutes, add the Balsamic and maple syrup, paprika and chili and stir for another minute until the onions have browned slightly and caramelised. Remove a couple of tablespoons of the onions to a bowl for garnishing the dip.
- You can also saute the onions as described above in the Instant Pot once the beans have cooked. Simply use the Saute function.
- Blend and puree the dip. Strain the cooked beans through a sieve (garlic bits should remain with the beans). Return the beans to the pot with the remaining cooked onions and add the cream cheese. You can also do this in a large mixing bowl. Stir through and use an immersion blender stick to puree the beans until smooth and creamy. A food processor would also work. Taste for salt.
- Transfer the pureed dip to a bowl and top with the reserved caramelized onions. Serve with corn chips, crackers, or cut up celery, carrots, cucumber, radish or any other veggies.
Video
Nutrition
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Len
INSTEAD of soaking the beans overnight and then cooking for 10 minutes, can't you just skip the soaking and cook them for 35 minutes? That's what I do when making hummus from dried chickpeas.
Len
Ahh, missed the last line (30 minutes without soaking). Still, looking forward to making this.