Recipe: Mom’s Refried Black Beans

Here’s a great recipe for refried black beans that I get from my Mom. These go great with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I love them with eggs for breakfast, added in sandwiches, and also as a side to any meat dish. Just dipping some bread in them is also good!

You’ll need a pressure cooker, blender, and a frying pan. I use an Instant Pot Duo (6 quart) to make my beans, but you can also use a regular pressure cooker as well.

To me the signature ingredient in this is Worcestershire sauce. If you find yourself unwilling to make all these things at once you can also make the black beans first, put them away and then bring them back out to make the refried beans (you can even freeze them for long-term usage).

Make sure to keep a 3-1 ratio on the black beans and water so you have enough broth to make the refried beans.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of black beans
• 6 cups of water
• 1 whole onion
• 1/4 of a green bell pepper
• 2 garlic cloves – whole
• 1 tbsp. of extra-virgin olive oil
• Worcestershire sauce
• Sazon (use your own mix or buy it premade)
• Sugar (1 pinch)
• Garlic Salt (approx. 6 shakes)
• 2 tbsp. Sofrito
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 tbsp. of cooking oil (I use Grapeseed Oil)

Make the black beans:

1. Put washed black beans, water, 1/2 of an onion cut up, 1 tbsp. of olive oil, 1/4 of a green bell pepper, and 2 cloves of garlic in a pressure cooker.
2. Set to pressure cook for 30 minutes if using an Instant Pot (set to sealing) or if using a regular pressure cooker put on the stovetop. Quick pressure release when finished on Instant Pot.
3. Throw away the garlic cloves.
4. Now set your Instant Pot to Saute Mode and cook on low heat for 20-30 minutes until the beans thicken (if using a regular pressure cooker cook on stovetop). Add Sazon, Cumin (2 shakes), Sugar (1 pinch), Garlic Salt (6 shakes), 2 tbsp. of sofrito, salt to taste as you cook the beans. Feel free to adjust the other ingredients as you taste.
5. Once the beans have thickened turn off and prepare to blend.
6. Remove beans and liquid and separate (do not throw out the bean broth).

Make the refried beans mix:

1. Put beans in a blender with 1/4 of an onion.
2. Pour bean liquid up to where the beans are – do not pour over it. The mixture should be mostly beans.
3. Blend beans and onion together until mixture softens. You can pulse the beans if you want to maintain some of the beans in the mixture.
4. Put aside and prepare stovetop.

Make your refried beans:

1. Add 2 tbsp. of cooking oil (I used grapeseed oil) to your frying pan and 1/4 of an onion cut up. Cook until onions infuse with the oil. You can either take out the onions here or leave them in – the choice is yours. I leave mine in.
2. Add refried beans mix into the frying pan. Cook on low to medium heat. Add Worcestershire sauce (about 6 shakes) to the beans. You can add more to your liking. Taste to see if any extra salt is needed and add if so.
3. Cook until your refried beans thicken.
4. Enjoy!

You can add toppings like queso fresco on top, sour cream, or crema. Once we make a batch we normally refrigerate and use these over and over with different dishes. They also go really great in quesadillas! Hope you like them as much as I do!