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Let your Crock Pot do the cooking! Make delicious, nutritious, refried beans in your slow cooker–with your choice of spices and seasonings.
I’m not much of a bean eater, but the rest of the crew loves refried beans with their chips and tacos.
Cans of Rosarita beans are inexpensive (about $1 each at Costco), but I knew I could do better. Besides, I have a long and storied history of making things instead of buying them.
This is a perfect recipe to help get your kids in the kitchen. Crock Pot cooking is safer than stovetop, and little hands can measure and pour ingredients easily. They can even chop onions with a butter knife if they can stand the smell!
Tools Used to Make Crock Pot Refried Beans
4.5 quart Crock Pot or Instant Pot: both of these awesome kitchen items help make refried beans from scratch. Use the ‘slow cooker’ setting on the instant pot.
RealSalt: a natural, unrefined ancient sea salt with a huge boost of flavor
Immersion blender: a great kitchen tool to get a super smooth texture to your refried beans. You can use a potato masher for a more “chunky” texture.
Crock Pot Refried Beans
Ingredients
1 lb dried pinto beans
1 small yellow onion, chopped fine
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. salt (I recommend RealSalt for its natural minerals)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. homemade taco seasoning mix
Instructions
News flash! You don’t need to soak your beans before cooking. Just dump everything into the Crock Pot and add plenty of water (at least a couple of inches above the beans).
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. The beans are done when they are tender and starting to split.
Taste and adjust seasonings if desired. Scoop beans out into a big bowl, keeping the cooking liquid in the pot.
Mash the beans, adding cooking liquid as needed, until they’re your favorite consistency. My crew likes them lumpy, so I use an old-fashioned potato masher. If you prefer a smoother consistency, use an immersion blender.
Makes 6 cups (equal to 3 cans).
Price breakdown
This is fabulous. The only ingredient I needed to buy was the beans, which were $1.39. The onion and garlic were from the garden, and I had the other spices already on hand. This makes each “can” of beans just 46c. If I’d bought the beans at Costco, they’d have been 78c a pound–for a grand total of 26c a can.
Grab some chips and taco fixins and dinner is served!
Crock Pot Refried Beans
- 1 lb dried pinto beans
- 1 small yellow onion (chopped fine)
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning mix
-
You don’t need to soak your beans before cooking. Just dump everything into the Crock Pot and add plenty of water (at least a couple of inches above the beans).
-
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. The beans are done when they are tender and starting to split.
-
Taste and adjust seasonings if desired. Scoop beans out into a big bowl, keeping the cooking liquid in the pot.
-
Mash the beans, adding cooking liquid as needed, until they’re your favorite consistency. My crew likes them lumpy, so I use an old-fashioned potato masher. If you prefer a smoother consistency, use an immersion blender.
