I live in Texas and my wife is from Northern Mexico. This is a classic, extremely easy, 5 minute refried beans recipe:
- 1 can of pinto beans, already cooked
- 1 heaping tbsp of lard (olive oil can be substituted if you are vegan or vegetarian)
- salt to taste. We almost never salt the beans because we eat them with other fairly heavily salted foods, but it depends on how you cook obviously.
Open can, empty about the top 1/8 of liquid from the can. Again this is to personal preference, but usually using all of the liquid from the can in the saucepan results in too runny beans.
Bring beans to boil in saucepan with the liquid from the can. Once beans are boiling, add lard/oil and simmer on medium low heat until lard has completely melted or oil has dispersed.
Stir and mash beans. We use a potato masher in our house. Very low tech. I’ve even used the back of a spoon in a pinch, but it’s a bit of a pain to do that.
Serve hot. The longer you wait the thicker the beans become. So if they come out a little runny just wait a little while and let them cool, they will thicken. The only thing that can save completely watery beans is more beans, however.
From Texas, refried beans both (1) get a terrible reputation for being unhealthy because of a mistranslation (2) are in my top tier favorites. A good refried beans dish is absolutely delicious.
- 1 can of pinto beans, already cooked
- 1 heaping tbsp of lard (olive oil can be substituted if you are vegan or vegetarian)
- salt to taste. We almost never salt the beans because we eat them with other fairly heavily salted foods, but it depends on how you cook obviously.
Open can, empty about the top 1/8 of liquid from the can. Again this is to personal preference, but usually using all of the liquid from the can in the saucepan results in too runny beans.
Bring beans to boil in saucepan with the liquid from the can. Once beans are boiling, add lard/oil and simmer on medium low heat until lard has completely melted or oil has dispersed.
Stir and mash beans. We use a potato masher in our house. Very low tech. I’ve even used the back of a spoon in a pinch, but it’s a bit of a pain to do that.
Serve hot. The longer you wait the thicker the beans become. So if they come out a little runny just wait a little while and let them cool, they will thicken. The only thing that can save completely watery beans is more beans, however.