Homemade Refried Beans

We primarily use refried beans in two things: taco dip and our homemade frozen burritos. Recently, we were given about a pound of dried pinto beans and instantly we decided to make them refried. Our pound of beans turned into about 8+ cups of refried beans! It was crazy but exciting. We love free food.

To prepare, you soak the beans overnight. I kept forgetting to do this so I just soaked them during the day, for about 10 hours. Make sure they are in plenty of water. Then you drain and rinse. In a big pot, add all the beans and (new) water. Again, make sure you cover them with enough water. Simmer for about 4 hours, or until the skins start to break. Because I had soaked my beans during the day, I was doing this at night and 4 hours was past my bedtime. This happened when we made our black beans too. Maybe that's why people do it overnight?

Then we went to bed so we drained the beans and put them in the fridge. I don't recommend doing this but if you have no choice, you have no choice. When you continue, put them in a big skillet on medium-high heat. Add 1/4 cup of water. Stir and heat throughout (this takes forever if you refrigerate them first). Then mash with a potato masher until they are a consistency you like. If necessary, add more water (but only 1/4 cup at a time. You'd be amazed how much a little water can do). I think we ended up adding about 1 cup total. Season with salt and whatever seasonings you like. Some suggestions are: cumin, paprika, pepper, chili flakes, cayenne, etc. It all depends on how hot you want your beans and how bland. We only used salt in ours. Be sure to taste as you go so you can adjust accordingly.

Then you're done. We had enough beans to use up 5 burrito shells for our homemade frozen burritos (feel free to look back through my posts for that recipe), and about 5 cups to freeze for either dip or more burritos! This was a lot of beans! The best part of all was that it was all free!

I also feel like I should mention that "refritos" is mistranslated as "refried". It's supposed to be well-fried. That's why this recipe is even more simple. You only have to cook them once (minus the soaking part).