You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get great side dishes! This inexpensive make ahead Refried Bean Mix recipe is very inexpensive, less than .05 per prepared serving.
(Photo credit to BleedingAce!)
You’ll Need:
3 cups dried navy or pinto beans
3 tsp. dried cumin
3 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt pepper
3 T. dried minced onion
In a coffee grinder, food mill or blender, grind beans until a flour consistency. Combine all ingredients and store jar or ziploc bag.
To Use:
3/4 cup mix
2-1/2 cups boiling water
Mix with a wire whisk until combined. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 4-5 minutes or until thickened. Mixture will thicken more as it cools. Refried beans will remain thickened even when reheating. You can add salsa or chopped chili peppers for added zip.
Here is a picture of a jar of refried beans, I made from dried pinto beans; so our children could have something quick, easy and healthy to make for lunch. They love bean burritos with this mix and rated it a 10 (cause you can add cheese).
They like to add cheese, lettuce and our homemade salsa to their flour tortilla raps.
Our children are confident that they can cook good now.
🙂
Thank you Budget 101 for making my life easier and our children happy!
this is so much cheaper then my version, which is to buy canned chile beans (when on sale) and then mashed them.
i made this a couple of times this past weekend. in my ninja it worked ok but was not quite a fine enough grind. we ate the burritos for supper, the beans were edible but the chunks were not as soft as i thought they should be even after they cooked an additional 3-4 min.
I bought a coffee grinder and still had to re grind a third or so of the mix because it was too chunky.
Today a friend brought over the grain mill attachment for the kitchenaid mixer and that worked the best of all! The batch I made today I am adding a bit of garlic powder (1 teaspoon) and some dried parsley flakes (1 tablespoon) to. I am excited to add this recipe to my collection.
The canned beans are a very high sodium content for my family and dried beans are much cheaper than canned!
Thanks for the tips on which machines work best, and how to add a bit more variety in flavors…Can’t wait to try it first with my old Osterizer – if need be, I’ll invest, once, in a better grinder…I’ll try to remember to post my results.
How did you use the grain mill attachment? I tried tonight and it was just getting gummed up from the oil in the pinto beans. What speed and coarse setting did you use?
i love this recipe idea, and am testing this out today. here’s where i am so far. i used a coffee grinder, and it did a pretty good job turning the beans into a flour, but as mentioned above, it was gritty.
i cooked up a batch (will share microwave method below), and it still had the consistency of a bowl of grits.
i took my finest mesh sifter, and shook the flour through it, regrinding the little chunky parts, and then pouring from the coffee mill through the sifter again. am cooking up the next batch, and so far, it’s got the consistency of cream of wheat, with smaller gritty bits than the first bowl. with each 30 seconds in the microwave, it’s getting a little softer.
The method I’m trying:
1/4 Cup bean flour with seasonings
3/4 Cup plus 1-2 Tablespoons water
Microwave water in your pyrex measuring cup for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes till boiling
Mix water and bean flour in a cereal bowl. Mix with a fork.
Microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between.
So far, my bowl is up to about 4 1/2 minutes, and I just had to add one tablespoon of water.
At 5 minutes, the little gritty bits are soft, but they are still there.
At 5 1/2 minutes, I’m adding one more tablespoon of water. I’m gonna guess the total water is getting close to a cup now, which makes a good 1:4 ratio for measuring out different serving sizes.
At six minutes, it’s still just a wee bit gritty. I could eat this with rice and never notice it.
At six and a half minutes, you know, another tablespoon of water won’t hurt anything.
At seven minutes, it’s a little bit softer every time, but not quite ready yet.
At eight minutes, it’s creamier, grit is hardly noticeable.
At nine minutes, I added one more tablespoon of water.
At ten minutes, it’s mostly creamy, but it’s still got a bit of texture like ground cooked rice. I’m going to let it stand for five minutes, and see what it’s like. It’s possible that the grit is actually my seasonings.
As for the flavor, I am happy with the seasonings I used, and my hubby liked it too, so I’ll share:
2 pound bag of pinto beans, rinsed and dried on paper towels
4 Tablespoons of dried chopped onion
2 Tablespoons of dried minced garlic
3 Tablespoons Ham flavored broth base powder
6 packets of True Lime (100% pure crystalized lime juice)
Well, it’s had time to stand, and it did thicken up some more, and is still just a bit gritty. I added two more tablespoons water, and put it back in.
After two more rounds of 30 seconds, we’re up to 11 minutes now, it’s still got some grittiness. I’m going to sign off for now, and try a couple of things. I’m going to let this batch stand awhile longer, and I’m going to also try another batch, with more water in the beginning, and microwave it at higher power or longer cooking time at once.
I’ll let you know the results.
hope my first two comments show up later. the popup box said i had posted, but the comments aren’t showing for me yet. anyway, in my first attempt, i had used a coffee grinder, sifted, reground, and got an improved, but gritty texture, like a bowl of grits.
in my second attempt, i put the bean flour in the osterizer blender, and got a finer flour, which cooked up more like cream of wheat, but there were still little bits of “grit” that cooked up soft, like cooked rice, but wouldn’t entirely “melt”.
so i have put the flour back into the blender, and blended it and blended it till it was practically too hot to touch. it seems like the best test of cooked texture is how the flour feels in your hand when it’s dry, because that’s about how gritty it will be after you cook it. i cannot entirely eliminate the “grit” from this flour, but for the most part, it is very fine, like regular flour or powdered sugar, but it just feels like someone poured a tiny bit of very fine sand into it, and i just can’t seem to get that out.
the taste turned out pretty good, and my husband liked it too.
i would serve it to company because of the taste, but not because of the texture. if i can find a way to make it entirely creamy, then it’s a 100% win for me. It’s possible that just letting it sit longer will be the answer, but I am attempting instant, or near-instant results, so for now, I’ll give it a 90-95%, and I will definitely use this recipe for personal use.
Here’s the final recipe and cooking instructions that I used:
Dry mix:
2 pound bag of dry pinto beans
2 Tablespoons chili powder
4 Tablespoons dry chopped onions
2 Tablespoons dry minced garlic
3 Tablespoons powdered Ham flavored broth base
6 packets True Lime crystallized lime juice (equivalent to 2 Tablespoons wet lime juice)
To use:
1 cup water
1/4 cup bean flour mix
Microwave water in measuring cup for 1 1/2 minutes till boiling.
Put bean flour mix in cereal bowl or other bowl.
Stir with a fork as you slowly add the water to the bean flour.
Microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, for a total cooking time of about 5-6 minutes. Add water one tablespoon at a time if needed.
Beans typically need time to soak in order to absorb water. Try allowing them to soak in water for 5-10 minutes BEFORE putting in the microwave and see if that makes any difference to the gritty texture.
You could add a little lard when you cook them.
thanks for this little gem. priced this at wally world and it was a lot of green!!! this would be just right for friday nite bbq!!!!!!
plus it would be great for my prep bag!!!!!!
:yoga::yoga:
thank you for the recipe i will give it a try!
I may need to try experimenting with this one in small batch form to make any adjustments that may need to be made for altitude (I’m at almost 7000 ft.) I currently make my refried beans from home canned pinto beans, but this would take up less space and I wouldn’t need to can quite as many jars 🙂
Question!! Do you cook and then dehyrdrate the beans… then grind them up?
no. just follow the recipe as instructed. 🙂
Do I need to cook the beans and dehydrate them before grinding them into the powder?
If you did, it would solve the issue everyone is having of grity non cooked beans. I am going to cook, then freeze dry mine and see how it turns out. I would love another side dish on my pantry shelves!
I used the dry blade container for my Vitamix and it made a perfectly fine flour. Started on variable 1, moved to 10, the switched to high for 1 minute. I only used 1 cup of beans at a time.
I did not have sucess with this recipe. In fact, it was a dump down the drain fiasco. I was able to grind the beans (I used black beans) fairly smoothly between my Ninja blender and KitchenAide mixer – some larger pieces, but I like chunky refried beans.
When it came time for cooking, I had to simmer the beans for at least 30 minutes for them to soften.
I would suggest for the next person to use chicken, beef or veggie broth instead of boiling water to mix with the beans for fuller flavor. I won’t try again.
Made with dehydrated cooked beans. Easy to get a fine grind and quick even rehydration. Added some ground rice for a complete protein.
This is an Awesome Idea!!! Thank You!!
Will the beans be cooked long enough to kill the active lectins? This is a wonderful idea. Grinding them I guess could reduce the cook time, just don’t want to make anybody sick.
I tried this Instant Refried Beans Mix, and it’s a lifesaver for busy weeknights! 🌮💡 I added a little bit of chipotle powder for a smoky kick and topped the beans with some fresh cilantro and cheese. It was perfect for quick burritos. Has anyone tried mixing black beans into this for a different flavor? I’m curious how that would turn out!