Spiced Up Refried Black Beans
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Quick and easy restaurant style refried black beans made right in your instant pot! The best part, you don’t even have to presoak the black beans!
Ha-low ha-low! Friends the black bean obsession of 2015 continues.
This time we’re making restaurant style refried black beans right in our instant pot. I don’t mean to be super obvious here, but i’m totally having a Mexican food moment with my ancho chicken street tacos and these insanely easy to make refried black beans that are completely vegan/vegetarian friendly and can be used in about one-thousand different ways other than plopping them on your plate as a side. <– Which, don’t get me wrong, these totally make a killer side dish but aside from that, they’re ideal as a filling for rice and bean quesadillas, work well on tostadas, and that 7-layer dip NEEDS these refried black beans as one of it’s layers.
And besides, black beans are good in EVERY way.
I’m just a teeny tiny bit of a fan.
Recently, my favorite thing to do is batch cooking. That goes for everything. Whether it’s chicken breasts, black beans, or pot roast. I love whipping up a big batch of these flexible meal items and then using them in different dishes throughout the week. So these refried black beans were served as vegetarian nachos topped with queso, pico and pickled jalapeños, as weekend breakfast migas, and as a side for my shrimp enchiladas.
Lets jump right into the recipe. This starts with dry black beans that you do not, I repeat, DO NOT need to soak. The procrastinator inside of me is jumping with joy. You pop them into the instant pot along with a little ground cumin, chipotle chili powder, a little Mexican oregano, and water. Make sure you don’t add salt at this time. Allow the beans to cook for 45-48 minutes.
When cooking with beans always remember, if your beans have been in your pantry for a while, they’ll require more time for cooking than freshly bought beans. Mine were in the pantry for a month before I got around to making refried black beans so I pressure cooked them for 45 minutes and they were perfect. Once your beans are cooked, reserve 2 1/2 cups of liquid and drain off the rest. If you’d like chunky black beans, use a potato masher to mash the beans, for smoother, more restaurant style refried beans, use a stick blender to blend.
The refried part comes in next: cook the onions and peppers in ghee, oil, or rendered fat, whatever you like. We really like the way these beans taste with ghee! And add it all into the instant pot and give it a good stir.
Serve this up for Cindo de Mayo and store the leftovers in your freezer for quick meatless dinners or as a side!
Spiced Up Refried Black Beans (Instant Pot)
Quick and easy restaurant style refried black beans made right in your instant pot! The best part, you don't even have to presoak the black beans! Use these beans on nachos, as a side with enchiladas, for rice and bean quesadillas, or vegetarian tacos!
Ingredients
- 1 pound (~ 2 1/2 cups) dry black beans
- 6 cups water
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (Mexican if you can find it!)
- 1/4 cup ghee (see notes for vegans)*
- 1 cup white onions, diced
- 1-2 minced jalapeños, seeds + ribs removed
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Add the beans, water, ground cumin, chipotle chili powder, and oregano to the instant pot (or a stove top pressure cooker), secure the lid, hit the bean/chili setting and allow the beans to cook for 45-48 minutes (if you're beans are about 1 month old or newer, set for 45 minutes. If they've been in your pantry for a while, set for 47-48 minutes). Allow the pressure to release naturally or turn the knob to 'vent'.
- Reserve 2 1/2 cups of liquid in a measuring cup, drain the rest of the liquid from the beans.
- Heat the ghee in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onions and jalapeños and allow them to cook until they just start to brown, about 8-10 minutes. Pour the ghee and onion mixture into the beans and stir to combine. Add the salt and stir.
- Use an immersion blender for smoother beans or a potato masher for chunkier beans along with 1/2 cup of reserved liquid. Add more liquid as required to blend/mash the beans to desired texture. I used about 1 cup liquid total. Adjust seasonings to taste. If your beans become too thin, heat the instant pot on the sauté setting and let cook for 5-7 minutes or until thickened to desired texture. Remember, beans will thicken as they sit so if you aren't serving immediately, consider leaving them a little thinner. Top with chopped cilantro, jalapeños and cotija cheese before serving!
Notes
- I like to use ghee for this recipe which makes these beans vegetarian, you can use oil for vegans or rendered animal fat for meat eaters!
- Beans can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
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7 Comments on “Spiced Up Refried Black Beans”
I make this several times a month – it’s a favourite in our house! I do make a few modifications:
1. I replace the water with vegetable broth.
2. I sauté 3 chopped garlic cloves with the onions.
3. I omit the jalapenos to keep it kid-friendly.
4. I omit the salt as my vegetable broth has salt.
Marzia, thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe!
Very tasty recipe. Great for something a bit different.
Fantastic! Doubled in my Duo 6 quart. Drained beans then sautéed onions and jalapeño in the pot and added beans back in. Used immersion blender to thicken but kept some texture. Delicious with toppings and lots left over for the freezer. Next time I will reduce the water because I had lots that I didn’t use.
Couldn’t you just use sautéed fearure first to sauté onions and jalapeños in ghee then add beans and liquid and cook? One pot easy peasy.
That works and you can certainly do that! To make authentic refried beans, you traditionally add the fat/onions once the beans are cooked 🙂
Do you know if the Instant Pot could handle double the recipe? I need to make some refried beans for a potluck, and this sounded like a fun recipe to try.
Hi Gwen! That’s actually a great question. My original thought was yes, but after doing a little research, it turns out that you should only fill a pressure cooker ½ way full when cooking beans or rice. A single batch of this recipe does that so unfortunately if you decide to make this recipe, you’ll have to do it in batches.