Chipotle Cinnamon Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans
Tender, slow-cooked beans in a red broth tempered with coconut milk toward the end. The broth hums with a strong cinnamon, chipotle, and tomato foundation punctuated with cayenne pepper and Thai chiles.
You’re looking at some really good slow-cooked beans here. They’re simmered until extra tender in a brilliant red broth tempered with coconut milk toward the end. The broth hums with a strong cinnamon, chipotle, and tomato foundation punctuated with cayenne pepper and Thai chiles. The broth thickens as it cooks enveloping the beans over the course of an hour or two. Make a pot and use them throughout the week!
How To Serve Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans
I love these beans soupy and straight, just after I make a fresh pot - drizzled with a bit of extra coconut milk. All bets are off after that. The flavors concentrate overnight and the broth thickens. These beans are great on tacos. You can use them in place of chickpeas in a favorite bean or veggie burger. Or make them a foundation component in a lunch bowl. 
Other Ideas:
- Quesadillas: Make a quesadilla with a side of the coconut beans topped with salted yogurt, lots of sliced scallions, toasted cashews and a big squeeze of lemon.
- Grain Bowl: (pictured below) Serve a cup of your favorite rice and/or grain blend with the coconut beans on the side, drizzle with extra full-fat coconut milk. Top with sesame seeds and a bit of citrus olive oil and/or hot sauce.
- Make it a Soup: Add more water and coconut milk at the end, re-season and enjoy as a pot of soup.
Choosing Your Beans
I like to make these coconut beans with Santa Maria Pinquito beans. They deliver a robust broth that stands up beautifully to all the spices here. That said, I think King City Pink beans might work beautifully with their thinner skins and creamy tenderness. I can also imagine Mantequilla and Buckeye beans working nicely if you have either of those on hand.
Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans Video
This is a quick video to demonstrate how these beans come together.
Variations
As this recipe evolved over the course if this year, I landed on a spice blend that leans pretty hard into the feistiness of ground cinnamon and of a range of chile peppers. That said, there are a thousand other directions you could take the spice profile here while leaving many of the other ingredients in place. I could imagine a version heavy on caraway, and then you could introduce some chopped celery with the onion at the start. Basically, if you can imagine something being delicious alongside tomato and coconut milk, you shouldn't be shy about trying it out.
More Bean Recipes
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Chipotle Cinnamon Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans
I like to make these coconut beans with Santa Maria Pinquito beans. They deliver a robust broth that stands up beautifully to all the spices here. That said, I think King City Pink beans might work beautifully with their thinner skins and creamy tenderness. I can also imagine Mantequilla and Buckeye beans working nicely if you have either of those on hand. I also like to use fire-roasted crushed tomatoes here, but don’t be dissuaded if straight roasted tomatoes are what you have. And I've been using this homemade bouillon powder in place of commercial bouillon.
- 1 pound dried Santa Maria Pinquito beans, soaked overnight
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup yellow onions, finely diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 14- ounce can of crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from a can of chipotle chiles
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 bouillon cube or 1 tablespoon homemade bouillon powder
- 4 dried Thai chiles
- 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 3/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
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Drain the beans and set aside.
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Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
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Add the onions and cook until soft, 5 minutes or so. Stir in the garlic and crushed tomatoes, and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, adobo sauce and cinnamon, and cook for another minute or two. Stir in the bouillon, the beans, 6 cups of water, and the Thai chiles.
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Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring regularly, until the beans are wonderfully tender and the broth has reduced and thickened. You want a gentle simmer here because it usually takes between an hour or two for the beans to get that creamy tenderness you’re after. Stir in the salt and most of the coconut milk, a half cup or so.
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Remove from the heat, wait 10 minutes or so, and serve drizzled with a bit more coconut milk.
Serves 12.
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Comments
Hi Heidi! Any thoughts on how to adjust timing to instant pot this recipe? Steps seem like they’d all be the same, adding the coconut milk after pressure cooking. Just curious how long you’d cook them in the IP? Looks delicious, can’t wait to try!
Hi Ruby – it’s always a little tricky with the IP, and will depend on what kid of beans you’re using (as well as how fresh they are). I’d likely still soak them overnight, and then start with 22 mins in the IP. See how that goes. Fingers crossed!
Made this with King City Pinks as well. Absolutely delicious.
Wooohoo! Happy to hear it Abby.
These are on the stove right now. My one concern is the heat at the begining. My onions got pretty burnt.
I don’t have access to heirloom beans. If I use dried pintos from my local store will it work out ok?
Hi Brigette – my main concern is that some beans have been stored for ages, and can take a very long time to cook. Basically, I encourage you to seek out a good source for dried beans. Keep an eye out at local farmers markets, and there’s Rancho Gordo, of course.
Hi, This recipe looks delicious. Is there a reasonable substitute for coconut milk? I am trying to stick to a low cholesterol diet. Thanks so much,
Hi Abby, you could skip it. Alternately, you could swap in a cashew milk (puree 1 cup cashews with 1 cup water in a high-speed blender until silky smooth)…You’re basically looking for a bit of creaminess, so if you have a go to ingredient that does the job, and fits within your diet, play around.
I made this last night and it was SO DELICIOUS!!! I was worried that adding the tomatoes at the beginning of the recipe would impede the beans’ cooking, so I added everything else but waited until the beans were done to add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. I sautéed them for a few minutes to help decrease the “raw” taste of tomato paste and then stirred it in to the beans. It was a winner, will definitely make again.
Thanks Julie!
Hi, Heidi! Do you think I would achieve the same overall level of spice if instead of using the Thai chillis and the cayenne, I used the chipotles from the can with the sauce? Would that throw off the balance of flavours too much?
Hi Talia – you should try it! You can always adjust as you go.
Hi! Could I use freshh Thai chili instead of dried? About to make these and realized I only have fresh.
Yes, sure! it’s to your taste really, so play around with what you have!
Wow. This is delicious. It took my soaked beans 3 hours to cook and get tender. SO YUMMY!
Thanks Laura!
Whoa! Warm and soothing. I love love this recipe, yet, I love every recipe you give us. I served over coconut and cilantro jasmine rice with sauteed fresh spinach. I followed the recipe precisely with the exception of using cranberry beans. Thank you for helping me to successfully navigate my new life as a lacto-ovo vegetarian. Next month will be my one year anniversary of vegetarian life change and you have been there every step of the way!
Thanks for the kind note Cathryn!
Thanks for the easy and delicious recipe! For a 6 yo who can handle some (but not a lot) of spice, we left out the cayenne and used only two Thai chiles. We all gobbled it down.
Thanks Christine!
alternating bites of beans with typing this post. delish! forgot to add the coconut and it’s still fabulous. used rancho gorgo king city pink beans. what a yummy pot for the rest of the week. thank you so much, heidi.
Thanks Jude! Good call on the King City Pinks…xx!
This looks fantastic, Heidi! I’ve made your giant chipotle beans more times than I can count & everyone absolutely loves them. That’s my all-time favorite bean dish, and I eat a LOT of beans! 🙂
I love those beans so much too.:) Thanks for the note Ashley.
I am enjoying this right now! It’s fantastic just as written. Thank you very much.
Woohoo! Love reading this.
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