Vegan Cheesy Pinto Beans! This versatile, protein-packed recipe shines with pantry staples and flexible toppings, making it an ideal option for meal prep, batch cooking, or a nourishing family dinner.

This Vegan Cheesy Pinto Beans dish is a warming, satisfying, and crave-worthy centerpiece for weeknight dinners or leisurely weekend meals. The nutritional yeast infuses every bite with a luscious, cheesy flavor and a savory depth that sticks to your ribs in the best possible way. For a complete, crowd-pleasing plate, pair this dish with fluffy rice or quinoa, slices of creamy avocado, soft flour tortillas, or a simple,  side salad.

Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.

Hi there, Ameera here!

This dish is so cozy and warm, it feels like a hug in a bowl. We kept coming back for more, drawn in by the comforting aroma of simmering beans. We loved how simple ingredients can come together to create something deeply satisfying without any dairy.

You gotta give this one a try—it’s the kind of recipe that sparks happy meal smiles around the table, begs for a big scoop of avocado on top, and pairs perfectly with a side of fluffy rice or a bright, zesty salad.

Tips for Success:

• Flavor Profile: This Vegan Cheesy Pinto Beans dish is a warming and satisfying meal. Full of hearty pinto beans and onions, it’s perfect comfort food. Pair it with rice, quinoa, avocadoes, flour tortillas, or a simple salad for the perfect meal.
• Spices: Feel free to increase the amount of spices to suit your personal preferences.
• Nutritional Yeast Amount: This dish gets its cheese flavor from nutritional yeast. Some nutritional yeast brands can be more flavorful or potent than others. If unsure about the recipe amount of 1/3 cup, start with less and build from there until you have a good understanding of how much nutritional yeast is needed to get the optimal cheesy flavors.
• Amount of Sea Salt: Our family was completely divided over the amount of sea salt that was used in this recipe. Some felt it needed additional sea salt seasoning. We ultimately landed on 1 ¼ teaspoons of sea salt.
• Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
• Table Salt: If using table salt, you should use less table salt than the amount listed in the ingredients as sea salt crystals are larger than table salt crystals. Since table salt crystals are very fine, less table salt is required to season a dish. We would suggest starting with about 1/4 to 1/2 the amount of sea salt listed. You can always add more salt but cannot take it away. We recommend using sea salt as it is less refined than table salt.

Leftovers and Freezing:

Leftovers will generally keep 5 days in the refrigerator.  Store in a covered air-tight container.

This dish freezes well.

Pantry Products:

• Nutritional Yeast: We used Frontier Co-op Premium Nutritional Yeast Flakes. Feel free to use your favorite nutritional yeast.
• Hot Sauce: We used Frank’s RedHot Original Hot Sauce.
• Vegetable Stock: We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients.  Feel free to use your favorite vegetable broth.
• Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

Kitchen Equipment:

• Large stock pot
• Potato masher (or fork)

If you try these comforting beans, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.

Vegan Cheesy Pinto Beans

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 10 Minutes
• Cook Time: 30 Minutes
• Total Time: 40 Minutes
• Yield: 5 Cups 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Stovetop
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

This Vegan Cheesy Pinto Beans dish is a warming, satisfying, and crave-worthy centerpiece for weeknight dinners or leisurely weekend meals.

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Ingredients

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Base Ingredients:

• 1 large white onion, fine dice
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 ¼ cups low-sodium vegetable broth *
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (+/-) *
• ½ teaspoon hot sauce *
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Spice/Herb Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• ¾ teaspoon smoked paprika (+/-)
• 1 teaspoon cumin (+/-)
• ¼ to 1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt (+/-) *
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper (+/-)
• 1 bay leaf 

Other Ingredients:

• 3 – [ 15.5 oz. cans ] pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Optional Toppings:

• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Chopped avocados

Serving Ideas:

• Steamed rice (of choice)
• Tortilla chips
• Flour tortillas

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Instructions

1. Please all the Spice/Herb Ingredients (except the bay leaf) into a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
2. In a large stockpot, add the diced onions and jalapeno peppers, sauté over medium-high heat for 7 to 10 minutes to soften, add a splash of water, if needed to avoid burning.
3. Then lower the heat to medium, add the minced garlic, sauté, stir constantly for one minute.
4. Next add all the remaining Base Ingredients, the Spice/Herb Mix, (except the bay leaf), and the pinto beans, stir well, bring to a boil, add the pinto beans, stir well. Tuck in the bay leaf. Bring to a boil once again, then immediately slightly lower the heat to a low-percolating boil and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. After 15 minutes, using a potato masher (or fork), mash some of the beans directly in the pot (about ½ to ¾ cup of the beans), stir well to incorporate, then simmer for 5 minutes.
6. After 5 minutes, check the sauce thickness, if too thick, add more water (or broth), up to ¼ cup) to thin the sauce, stir well to incorporate.
7. Simmer on low for several minutes if more water or broth was added, then remove the bay leaf (discard). Serve topped with freshly chopped cilantro, chopped avocados, or coupled with your favorite grain like rice or quinoa, flour tortillas, or with a simple salad.

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Notes

Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Items Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Products Used.

Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.   

Servings:  4 (makes 5 cups)

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