Homemade Frijoles Refritos

A few days ago I was whining about the price of refried beans here in Canada.  

After some of you threw out the challenge to make my own refried beans, I found this super simple recipe online at AllRecipes.com:  

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
• 1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 5 teaspoons salt **
• 1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin, optional
• 9 cups water

** Only change I made was using 2 teaspoons of salt instead of 5.  And we only had 2 cups of pinto beans so I threw a cup of red kidney beans into the mix.  Next time I'll do a black bean/pinto bean combo and maybe add some chili powder.

Just toss everything into your crockpot for 9 hours, then smush up the beans with a potato masher and you've got a huge batch of yummy refried beans.  

Much healthier than the canned variety at a quarter of the price.

Thanks to Brenda in Mexico who told me to get off my lazy butt and make my own damn beans.  Although she said it in a much sweeter way   :) 

Comments

[Brenda]

lol too funny.
Glad you tried them and glad you liked them.
They have got to be better for you than that canned junk with all the preservatives, etc. in them, and way cheaper. If I can't pronounce the ingredients I don't like eating them lol. Well, I guess I need to qualify that as down here there are things I can't pronounce; but would eat lol.

There is a herb that you can cook in with your beans, Epazote that many put in and it is supposed to reduce the noisy side effect of the beans. Not sure if it is available in Canada or not. My landlady doesn't use it, it seems to be used more further south and in the eastern states.

http://growingtaste.com/herbs/epazote.shtml

Have a good day and enjoy your beans.

[Mike Holoiday]

They look great. Your going to be a great chef some day. We'll be over for supper tonight. Your beans should go well with carbonated beverages (ie beer)....poor Mave.
Mike and Mave

[Trent and Teresa]

Hi Kelsi

We have been wanting to try cooking with lentils and beans for some time now...and even bought a crock pot to use, but we still haven't started yet.

Please excuse my ignorance, but do you put this meal in a taco, or something, or just eat it as is with a salad ??

We are going to try this recipe, and will let you know how we made out !!

Thanks, T'nT

[kelsi]

Guaymas B - Epazote sounds interesting; I'll have to look into it more. Although beans ARE called 'the musical fruit' for a reason :)
Thanks again for suggesting I try make a batch myself.

[kelsi]

'Chef' may be stretching it a bit, Mike. But you're right; you can't go wrong with frijoles refritos and cerveza!
How was Sask? Did Dos make it through the flooding okay?

[kelsi]

T'nT,
I LOVE our crockpot. We use it and our rice cooker ALL the time in the RV.
In Mex you get a side of refried beans with almost everything you order in a restaurant and that's where we first picked up the bean habit. Then last year in Tucson we started eating refried beans with rice, low fat shredded cheese, salsa, corn, lettuce, tomato, peppers, etc. all combined into a salad. It's cheap, fast and healthy.
Let me know if you stumble on any good crockpot bean recipes.

[john]

Hold the garlic - looks good ;-)

[kelsi]

Senor C - hold the garlic? Are you anti ajo???

[Don]

At what point do we add the pork hocks and bacon?

[kelsi]

Mr P - what the HECK is a pork hock? Actually I'm not much for red meat, so maybe I don't really need to know!

[Casalunademiel.wordpress.com]

Hi Kelsi
just found your blog linked from Calipso at Viva Veracruz. Great job! You're an inspiration. I have forwarded your link on to my sons in hopes they will learn from you too...Keep up the great blog and I'd be honoured if you would visit mine....
Carol at casalunademiel

[kelsi]

Hola Carol,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I hopped on your blog briefly yesterday - you and your sweetpea have made some cool life changes! I'm looking forward to going back in the archives and reading your entire story.

Que tenga un bien fin de semana :)

[laurie]

I made a batch today. Well, my version. I'm simply not capable of following a recipe, lol! I don't have much for spices right now, so I included a jar of yummy salsa to give it some extra flavour....so good!

[kelsi]

NewsMama - Good call. I'm gonna throw in spicy salsa next time. How much salt did you use?

[laurie]

Didn't measure the salt, but probably closer to 3 tsps. I just used my palm. The beans definitely weren't salty and I grated old cheddar cheese in to our individual servings. I made rice, too, so that balanced out the salt, as well.