Crockpot refried beans
Creamy, garlicky refried beans made from a bag of dried pintos with no frying, enough for tacos tonight and a freezer stash for burritos later.
- 500 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 8
- About $0.92 a serving
- 430 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. Whatever’s left keeps for tomorrow.
Ingredients
For 8 servings.
- 1 lb dried pinto beans, picked over and rinsed
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lime
- 24 corn tortillas
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 cup Mexican blend cheese (optional)
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
- 1 avocado, diced (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 7 cups water
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Each serving has about 430 calories, 18 g protein, 74 g carbs and 7 g fat, and costs about $0.92 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No salsa? Pico de gallo works.
- No Mexican blend cheese? Shredded cheddar or cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
- No avocados? Guacamole works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Spread the beans on a plate, pick out any small stones, and them in a strainer.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Put the beans, onion, jalapeño, garlic, cumin, chili powder and 7 cups water in the slow cooker and stir.
Cover and cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 5, until the beans are completely soft and squash easily between two fingers.
Timer: 480 min
Dolly’s tip: Still firm at 8 hours? The beans were old. Give them another hour or two.Set a colander over a big bowl and the beans, saving the cooking liquid.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Put the beans back in the pot with the salt and oil and mash them with a potato masher or sturdy fork, adding the saved liquid at a time, until creamy.
Splash. A splash is a small, quick pour, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon. It’s there to loosen or brighten a dish, so the exact amount doesn’t matter.
How you’ll know: The dish looks a little looser or tastes a little brighter, not soupy.
Dolly’s tip: Stop when they look a little looser than you want. They thicken as they cool.Squeeze in the lime juice, then taste and add salt if they need it.
Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel, a stack at a time, and microwave 1 minute, until soft.
Timer: 1 min
Spread the beans in the warm tortillas and top with salsa, cheese, cilantro and avocado.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
When you host a dinner, Dollop builds the menu around your guests’ allergies, works out a cooking timeline back from when everyone sits down, and puts it all on one grocery list.
