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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:
Tip
You can absolutely make this recipe with canned pinto beans, but we love to start with beans cooked from dried for extra flavor.
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Refried Beans
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.
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
- In a medium-sized pot, heat the bacon fat or oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the diced onion and pepper along with the salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften, about five minutes.
- Add the garlic, tomato paste, cumin, and chili powder. Cook, stirring, for one minute.
- Add the beans along with ½ cup bean cooking water, broth, or plain water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add up to ½ cup more water if the beans become too dry.
- Then, using a potato masher, the back of a wooden spoon, or an immersion blender, mash the beans until smooth.
- Stir in lime juice and taste for salt.
- Serve hot.
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Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 201Total Fat: 6.9gCarbohydrates: 27.7gFiber: 8.9gProtein: 8.6g
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