I have had refried beans many times at Mexican restaurants, and have always liked them. As usual, when I like a dish at a restaurant, I try to make it myself at home. This was no exception. I have been meaning to make refried beans, and when I finally made them they came out great!
I always get questions about cooking with beans, and whether you should use dry pinto beans or canned pinto beans in recipes.
I prefer using dry pinto beans in recipes. Dry beans contain just one ingredient, and it is simple to cook them. However, it does take sometime to cook them. So if you don’t have the time to do that, please, don’t let that stop you from making these delicious refried beans! You can use canned pinto beans as well, just make sure to wash them, to get rid of extra salt.
Many refried beans recipes that I have read include lard. While that is probably tasty, I have decided to come up with a healthier refried beans recipe. The refried beans recipe below uses olive oil instead of lard, and it tastes great!
Tools You Will Need To Make Refried Beans
Knife
Cutting Board
Saute Pan
Potato Masher
Pot For Cooking Beans
Ingredients For Refried Beans
2 Cups of Dry Pinto Beans
3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion
3 Garlic Cloves
1/4 teaspoon of dry Mexican Oregano
1/4 teaspoon of Ground Cumin
Meal Planning Using Refried Beans
For meal planning, serve these delicious refried beans with Fish Tacos With Cole Slaw and simple boiled rice.
How To Make Refried Beans
Soak the beans for a few hours. To do that, add the pinto beans to a pot. Add cold water, and let stand for a few hours.
Put beans in a pot with water, bring to a boil, reduce the fire and cook for 2 hours or so, till the beans are cooked.
You can also use canned beans in this recipe, in this case make sure to rinse the beans a few times before using them.
Chop onion and garlic on a cutting board. Heat up olive oil in the saute pan. Note: since you will be mashing the beans in the saute pan, make sure that you are using a stainless steel saute pan.
Add onions and garlic to the olive oil and saute for about 8 minutes. Add oregano and ground cumin and cook for 2 mote minutes. Add pinto beans, mix all the ingredients together and cook for 5 more minutes.
Use the potato masher to mash up the beans. Add some water to the beans, as you are mashing them, to bring them to the consistency you want.
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