Carb Friendly Charro Beans using Black Soy Beans

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tallbm

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There have been some threads concerning the use of Black Soy Beans to make bean dishes that are carb friendly for those who do keto which is also in line with low carb diabetic goals 99.9% of the time.

After some experimenting I have landed on a surefire approach to go from dry bean to cooked without soaking using the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.
Most instructions you read talk about soaking beans with salt over night and such which is a more traditional bean cooking method.
With the use of pressure cookers you can skip all of that as well as greatly reduce cooking times. Anyone who has ever made a pot of beans on the stove knows it takes HOURS. A pressure cooker (Instant Pot in my case) drastically cuts that time down.

So here a pic while I ate a bowl for lunch today and then a more detailed write up:
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My Goal: To use dry black soybeans as a pinto/black bean substitute since it is a very low carb bean and to go from dry bean to cooked in minimal amount of time possible. Also the flavor is very close to a black of pinto bean though the texture never get's as soft.

Research Method:
Made these beans as though they were pinto beans in my Instant Pot pressure cooker the same way I would go from dry to to cooked without overnight soaking of any kind (because this is a major benefit of a pressure cooker ). Scaled up time during attempts to try and get as close to pinto beans and then refried beans as possible with acceptable flavor.

FYI, Dry black beans are roughly 4gm net carb (carbs you body uses, fiber has no nutritional value) and a whopping 15gm of protein from a plant!

Findings:
  • 120min in the Instant Pot on high pressure is the way to go for me and flavor was fantastic. Your expectations should be that this is not a pinto bean To be fair regular black beans are also not a pinto bean but taste great. Following this logic, black soybeans are not pinto or black beans so they have their own difference but slide right in as an additional bean to do pinto and black bean things with.
  • Use Instant Pot on High Pressure setting, specs say High setting is 10.2 ~ 11.6psi
  • No matter what time you land on you definitely want salt to be added before you cook. Or one attempt I added salt only after cooking the soy beans at one point and as the beans has absorbed no salt while cooking. 2 days later in the fridge salt penetration was making flavor noticeably better.

  • 45 minutes with 30+ min rest after - the beans are edible but need waaay more time, the beans were still whole were not easily mashable in texture and flavor penetration was very lacking. Beans had more soy flavor than bean flavor
  • 95 minutes with 30+ min rest after - the beans were still whole but were mashable in texture and flavor was fine. This is a perfectly acceptable result in flavor and texture BUT I wanted to push further
  • Winner: 120 minutes with 30+ min rest after - the beans were still whole but were the most mashable in texture and flavor was even better but this may be due to a switch of ingredients (smoked turkey wings instead of bacon and a little more salt to start with). This was by far the best batch in texture (most mashable) and flavor to me. See I want to easily turn these soybeans beans into refried beans so I'm looking to get the most mashable or even have them break down while cooking to get to refried bean consistently very easily
  • 120min+ - the Instant Pot only goes to 120min max hahaha. I wanted to try to work up high enough time limit so that the beans started to really break down

  • Refried texture - well I didn't get there and cannot get there with my Instant Pot alone. 120 min was easy to mash but there is going to be an issue. These beans are grittier/grainier in texture versus smoother in texture like pinto or black beans. This is likely due to the minimal carb content and the super high protein content. I think protein is just more grainy (think protein powder) and carbs are more mushy (think potatoes). I am confident the use of a blender, food processor, or an immersion blender would have no trouble turning these into refried beans. Texture may be between that of a hummus and refried pinto beans simply because it's a different bean. I'll try and mash some of these in a stove with a masher or spoon and see what happens but I feel these findings are relevant for those who want to go further

Charro Black Soybean Recipe:
  • 2.5 dry cups black soy beans
  • 5 cups of water (wet measuring cup, double dry bean amount)
  • 1TBspoon Salt (I used about 1.5 so anything between 1-1.5 should work depending on your salt preference, this does takes into consideration bacon or smoked turkey wings) - DEFINITELY ADD SALT BEFORE COOKING!
  • 1/2 medium onion diced in big chunks (any kind will work, I used $1/lb vidallia yellow onions on sale atm)
  • 3 Jalapenos - 1 sliced as is; 2 de-veined and de-seeded and sliced (no veins or seeds = all flavor no heat)
  • 14 oz of pico de gallo - this has my tomato (make it or buy it, I bought at the store made fresh daily. It contains onion, garlic, cilantro, jalapeno, and tomato)
  • 2 teaspoons Garlic Powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground Cumin
  • 1 tablespoon Chili Powder
  • 1 TBspoon Black Pepper
  • 1-2 Bay Leaves - depending on size (if you dont have it's ok to omit)
  • 2 teaspoon Mexican Oregano (can use any kind of oregano or marjaram its such a small amount the differences wont be huge) - if you don't have it's ok to omit
  • 12-16oz of bacon whole or cut up, or I used 2lbs of smoked turkey wing segments (store bought smoked wings)
Simply put all of it into your 6qt or better Instant Pot on high or regular pressure cooker ( needs 10.2 ~ 11.6psi to equal Instant Pot, so go with 10 or 15lbs you should be fine either way ). Set 120min for Instant Pot. For regular pressure cooker start timer 120 min when the rocking/rattling of the weight begins.
When done timer goes off use you preferred method of depressurizing. The beans are ready!!

I'm a guy who is doing a very low carb lifestyle for keto and because diabetes runs rampant in my family so preemptive avoiding that risk. Eliminating beans sucks but now this options means I can really really have them back in my life which is great! I also lift some weights and work out some when I can so this amount of protein is fantastic to have as a bonus. I'm super excited that this coming together so well!

I hope this info helps!
 
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I just made refried beans from this for dinner. I mashed the beans with a plastic spatula in the skillet while it was heating and it did ok.
Again these beans are not as smooth as a pinto or normal black bean. I feel like it is about 70% of the equivalent of normal refried beans which will do the job for me.

The turkey meat started mashing into strands like poultry does in a case like this so that didn't help. In the end they mashed up, liquid cooked way, I added cheese. Then ate with pork rinds as my "chip" component and it felt close enough to refriend beans that I will not hesitate to do it again in the future or to make refried bean tacos using my coconut flour tortillas :)

I hope this info also helps :)
 
I’ll be trying your method on the dry beans for sure. Definitely will cut the cost on the canned ones.
 
The whole deal looks and sounds good...JJ
 
I make black soybeans all the time over rice, with a healthy topping of onions., and garlic, as far as I can tell is the only difference between black soy beans & regular black beans is that you have to cook the soy beans a lot longer to get them tender. As far as flavor I don’t see much difference, but as far as nutrition, black soy beans ROCK! And your meal looks delicious!
Al
 
Those look really good. I going t make attempt at charro today.
Thanks! Ooooh I hope they come out well, I'm sure they will! :)

That first pics has my stomach growling . Man that looks good .

Thanks! Yeah they are good. I have 1 more bowl left and then they are done. Been good eatin.

I think I started a trend lol. Charro making the run for top spot from baked beans. :)
Hahaha you sure did. I make my beans like this 99% of the time anyhow. I like doing Borracho beans too in the past.

I make black soybeans all the time over rice, with a healthy topping of onions., and garlic, as far as I can tell is the only difference between black soy beans & regular black beans is that you have to cook the soy beans a lot longer to get them tender. As far as flavor I don’t see much difference, but as far as nutrition, black soy beans ROCK! And your meal looks delicious!
Al
Nice SmokinAl!
They are good stuff for sure and definitely in the rotation for me. Thanks!
 
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I think I will give the 120 minute a go. I going to use couple ham hocks but that going to be to long for them. Guess wont hurt to stop in the middle than restart? I been just soaking over night.
 
I have them going now. Guess I need to do a 20 minute NPR before removing the hocks. I should of just set it for 2 hours and see how come out.
 
I think I will give the 120 minute a go. I going to use couple ham hocks but that going to be to long for them. Guess wont hurt to stop in the middle than restart? I been just soaking over night.

The ham hock meat would be fine, it will simply be fall off the bone which is what I go for when I add my cured smoked meat component.

So far I've done this with:
  • Bacon
  • Ham Hock
  • Hog Neck Bones (with meat of course)
  • Turkey Wings
  • Turkey Tails/Butts
  • Turkey Drums
My favorite was the hog neck bones, the extra flavor from the bones was great!. I've been using bacon a recently for simplicity. No need to be picking ones out when just going the bacon route.
 
I have them going now. Guess I need to do a 20 minute NPR before removing the hocks. I should of just set it for 2 hours and see how come out.

As long as you are fine with fall off the bone ham hock meat then u will be fine just letting it roll the whole way. The flavor u get from the bone is also amazing too!
 
The ham hock meat would be fine, it will simply be fall off the bone which is what I go for when I add my cured smoked meat component.

So far I've done this with:
  • Bacon
  • Ham Hock
  • Hog Neck Bones (with meat of course)
  • Turkey Wings
  • Turkey Tails/Butts
  • Turkey Drums
My favorite was the hog neck bones, the extra flavor from the bones was great!. I've been using bacon a recently for simplicity. No need to be picking ones out when just going the bacon route.
I use to doing pinto and hock in a pot. Once the hocks are tender I pull them and let cool until beans are done. When I cooked to long before did not care for them. Seemed kind of dry and no flavor.
 
I use to doing pinto and hock in a pot. Once the hocks are tender I pull them and let cool until beans are done. When I cooked to long before did not care for them. Seemed kind of dry and no flavor.

I can understand that. I always just remove the bones and break the meat up some and throw back into the pot. I end up with a little bit of meat in each serving, rarely any big chunks.
 
Came out really good! I was able to remove hocks in one piece. These where 2 huge ham hocks and mostly meat. The best I have gotten in long time. Usually mostly fat and not much meat. I only put 1 T of kosher salt in. Needed little more so I just added some Lawry's. Also used Rotel in place of pico. This just might be the best bowl of beans I have had. Thanks

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Just saw this. THANKS Bookmarked. I might be last guy not to grab an Instapot but want one to make stocks and stuff like this. Any suggestions?
 
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