Recipe: Slow Cooker Refried Beans

I don't think anyone can say they hate slow cookers. Mine gets the most use on Sundays so I don't spend all day in the kitchen. It's perfect. I put the ingredients in, turn it on, and leave it until I am ready for it. I knew today wasn't going to be a day of me spending hours in the kitchen making things and taking pictures for you. I knew it was going to be a slow cooker day.

Refried beans are delicious. I love them with salsa. I love them with cheese. They go in or on just about any Mexican dish (not desserts, sicko) and make easy dips. They are great to add to soups as a thickener. I am sure we all have a couple of cans for that very reason. Until now. Now you can buy the dried variety and not be scared. It's cheaper and couldn't be easier. Plus you can make a large batch and freeze them.

Slow Cooker Refried Beans

2 lbs dried pinto beans

9 cloves of garlic

1 jalapeño (leave the seeds in if you want a little heat)

1 onion, cut into large pieces (or if you realize too late that you don't have onions, use onion salt)

Optional: 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp chili powder

1. Rinse the beans, take out anything that isn't a pinto bean.

2. Put them in a large sauce pan and cover by 2 inches of water. Boil, covered, for 15 minutes. 

3. While the beans are boiling, smash your garlic cloves, cut your onion and jalapeño, and add to the slow cooker. Add seasoning.

4. When the beans have boiled for 15 minutes, drain the water and add the beans to the slow cooker.

5. Add water to cover the beans by 2 inches of water. 

6. Cook on high for 6-7 hours. (I stirred them every couple of hours. Check them at 6 hours. You want them to be tender, but not overly mushy. It took just over 6 hours for mine to get to that point.)

7. Once they are tender, use a strainer to move them back into the sauce pan you used to boil them. Add some of the cooking liquid and use an immersion blender to blend them. (Don't remove the garlic, onion, and jalapeño. Blend them up in the beans. You'll thank me later.) Add liquid as needed. Season as needed at this point. This is when I added my salt. I also added a little more onion salt, probably wouldn't have needed to if I had an onion. 

8. Let it cool and put into quart size freezer bags and flatten them to store in the freezer. When you need them, you can put them in the fridge if you know a day in advance or defrost them in the microwave. 

Yes, I know these are called "refried" beans. You can fry them in a little oil or bacon grease at this point, but you don't need to. It's up to you. 

When you are ready to use them, refer to this list of ideas:

Tacos

Taco salad

Nacho topping

Burrito filling

Enchilada filling

Tostada topping

Dips

Quesadilla filling

Taquito filling

By themselves with rice

Enjoy them! You will be amazed at the flavor they take on compared to canned refried beans. I like them better than what restaurants offer. I'm sure you will too!

Carb Count

Pinto beans - 162 g - 41 g fiber = 121 g 

Jalapeño - 1 g

Onion - 10 g

Garlic - 9 g

Total 141 g

(I got a request to make these recipes easy to print. Didn't happen this week - I'll try next week.)