Easy Refried Black Beans
This super easy, healthy refried black beans recipe is the key to all of your quick weeknight meals! Just spread it onto a tortilla, taco shell, or salad with veggies and you’ve got a protein-packed, plant-based meal!
I’ve always loved refried beans. Growing up, my mom made (and still makes!) this super awesome layered nacho dip. Eating this dip, and eventually learning how to make it, introduced me to refried beans! The nacho dip recipe calls for canned refried beans, which I eventually learned tend to contain a higher amount of sodium than I’d usually recommend as an RD. One easy way to reduce the amount of sodium in a product or dish? Make it yourself at home!
I took it upon myself to learn how to make refried black beans at home. I knew that I loved them, and I also figured they would make a great plant-based protein addition for lots of meals at home. So far, we’ve eaten these easy refried black beans as a dip for tortilla chips, as a filling paired with veggies in black bean tacos and black bean fajitas, and finally on top of vegetarian taco salads, which by the way we’re obsessed with.
This recipe was adapted from Cookie and Kate’s Easy Refried Beans recipe. Her recipe using pinto beans was my inspiration to create my own refried black beans at home.
How to Make Refried Beans at Home
It’s actually a lot more simple than you may think! It was definitely more simple than I thought it would be. With a handful of ingredients, a few spices and a saucepan, you can create these buttery, easy refried black beans at home.
It’s as simple as sautéing your onions, garlic and spices in the saucepan, adding your beans + some water, mashing at all up, adding an herb + lime juice for flavour and calling it a day!
Tips for Making This Recipe:
Chop your onion very small and make sure to cook them until tender + translucent. This will help them blend right into the beans when you mash them, giving a whole lot of flavour without big chunks of onions. 🙂
Make them to your liking! Not a fan of cilantro? Omit it. Needs a little more salt, add it! Have a different type of bean on hand? Give them a go! You never know what delicious creation you’ll come up with when you add your own flare to a recipe.
Mash up the beans as much or as little as you like. In the recipe, I recommend mashing until at least half of the beans are mashed. You can go ahead and mash them even more depending on how chunky or how smooth you’d like your refried beans to be. I probably mashed mine until 3/4 of the beans were mashed up!
As always, let me know down below in the comments or on Instagram if you made my recipe! Please provide feedback if you have it. Xoxo, enjoy your refried beans!
Easy Refried Black Beans
Ingredients
- 1 19 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 small yellow or red onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1 tbsp lime juice, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm olive oil until shimmering. Add the finely chopped onions and salt. Cook, stirring periodically until the onions are softened and translucent. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, chilli powder and ground cumin. Stir together with onions until fragrant (about 30 seconds to a minute). Add the black beans and water to the saucepan. Stir together, cover the pan and allow to cook for 5 minutes.
- Reduce heat to low and remove saucepan lid. Use the back of a fork or potato masher to mash saucepan ingredients together until at least half of the black beans are mashed and you've reached your desired consistency. Continue to cook on low, stirring frequently, for 3-5 more minutes.
- Turn off the stove, remove saucepan from heat and stir in chopped fresh cilantro and lime juice. If necessary, add more salt, cilantro or lime to taste. If your refried beans appear dry, add small splashes of water and stir to combine until no longer dry. Cover bean mixture until you're ready to serve.
