Refried Beans: Our extra-delicious, flavor-packed refried beans recipe

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Is there anything better than refried beans? We're glad you asked. It's tough to improve on perfection, but we especially love our slightly amped up refried beans recipe, which packs a ton of flavor due to the addition of finely chopped onion, poblano pepper, and garlic, and the use of dried beans cooked from scratch if you like.

Use safflower or olive oil to make this recipe vegan, or bacon fat for an additional layer of flavor if you're in a meaty mood.

Why we love this recipe

Refried beans make us so happy. They're comforting and nutritious and versatile. Our version takes things to the next level with lots of flavor and lots of flexibility: use fresh-cooked or canned beans, make them bacony or vegan, and puree them perfectly smooth or mash as roughly as you like.

Ingredients for refried beans

Here's what you need to make this recipe:

• Bacon fat (left over from cooking bacon), olive oil, or safflower oil
• Onion
• Poblano pepper (preferred) or bell pepper
• Fine sea salt
• Garlic
• Tomato paste
• Cumin
• Chili powder
• Cooked pinto beans, either cooked at home from dried, or canned
• Broth, bean cooking water, or plain water
• Freshly squeezed lime juice

How to make refried beans

This is a nice, quick and easy recipe. Here's what you'll do. You can see all the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post.

• In a medium-sized pot, heat the bacon fat or oil over medium-high heat.
• Add the diced onion, pepper, and salt and cook until starting to soften.
• Add the garlic, tomato paste, cumin, and chili powder and cook, stiring constantly, for a minute.
• Add the beans along with ½ cup bean cooking water, broth, or plain water and bring to a boil.
• Simmer for 15 minutes. Add up to ½ cup more water if the beans become too dry.
• Using a potato masher, the back of a wooden spoon, or an immersion blender, mash or blend the beans until smooth.
• Stir in lime juice, taste for salt, and serve.

How to serve refried beans

Refried beans make an amenable side dish for a wide variety of Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes, or a nice accompaniment to fried or scrambled eggs for a weekend breakfast or brunch.

And here are a couple of our favorite recipes that incorporate refried beans:

• The best vegetarian nachos
• Vegetarian quesadillas
• Carne asada tacos

Tip

You can absolutely make this recipe with canned pinto beans, but we love to start with beans cooked from dried for extra flavor.

Continue to Content

Yield: 6

Refried Beans

Print

The concept of "better than refried beans" is meaningless. But if it were to mean something, we think it would mean our version of refried beans, which packs a ton of flavor due to the addition of finely chopped onion and poblano pepper and garlic, and the use of dried beans cooked from scratch if you like. Use safflower or olive oil to make this recipe vegan, or bacon fat for an additional layer of flavor if you're in a meaty mood.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons safflower oil, olive oil, or bacon fat
• 1 medium yellow onion, very finely diced
• 1 poblano pepper, very finely diced
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 3 cups cooked pinto beans (canned or cooked from dried)
• Juice of ½ lime

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized pot, heat the bacon fat or oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the diced onion and pepper along with the salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften, about five minutes.
3. Add the garlic, tomato paste, cumin, and chili powder. Cook, stirring, for one minute.
4. Add the beans along with ½ cup bean cooking water, broth, or plain water.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add up to ½ cup more water if the beans become too dry.
7. Then, using a potato masher, the back of a wooden spoon, or an immersion blender, mash the beans until smooth.
8. Stir in lime juice and taste for salt.
9. Serve hot.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
  OXO Stainless Steel Good Grips Potato Masher with Cushioned Handle, Single
• 
  Braun Immersion Blender
• 
  Anolon Advanced Hard Anodized Pots and Pans

Nutrition Information:

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 201Total Fat: 6.9gCarbohydrates: 27.7gFiber: 8.9gProtein: 8.6g

Did you make this recipe?

We'd love to see! Tag us on Instagram at @umamgirl and use the hashtag #umamigirl. We'll reshare our favorites.