Refried Black Beans are the bees knees when it comes to flavourful comfort food.
Black Bean Nutrition
After discovering both that I'm homozygous for the MTHFR polymorphism that has gotten so much attention of late, and that my gut bacteria were in desperate need of quality prebiotic fibre to munch on, I decided to do away with strict Paleo eating and embrace the world of legumes. Give me all the folate and all the prebiotic fibre please. I've quickly determined that I have a few favourite varieties - the rest I don't really care for. I can't go past using chickpeas for a smoky hummus (recipe coming soon!), French lentils in a salad and black beans in almost anything - they certainly top the list.
I've written about the various benefits of black beans here, and I'm happy to be able to provide a recipe for enjoying them. They have such a lovely unique flavour, I really look forward to cooking with them.
How to serve Refried Black Beans
So, here is my recipe for Refried Black Beans. There's not much frying involved, so the name is a little confusing. What they are is delicious and comforting. They go perfectly with my purple sweet potato flatbread and condiments such as olives, quick pickled red onions, guacamole, baba ganoush, hot sauce...the list goes on! I like to make a big batch of this to last me through the week. I use my pressure cooker to prepare the beans themselves in a lightning fast 28 minutes with no pre-soaking required. If you haven't gotten a pressure cooker yet, I highly recommend one. You can see my pressure cooker recipes here and an article all about why pressure cooking is so great here.
Refried Black Beans
Ingredients
- 1 ½ C (300g) dried black beans, or 600g canned black beans (measured after draining)
- 1 medium brown onion diced
- 6 med-large cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ⅔ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- If using dried beans, cook according to your preferred method (options below) and the equipment you have. Or you can use canned beans instead - remember to drain and rinse first before using them and follow from Step 5.
- Option A: On the stove. Soak beans overnight for 8 hours with 10cm (4 inches) of water covering them. Rinse when ready to cook. Place in a large stockpot with 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat to medium-low, simmering partially covered for 30-40 minutes until they are tender. Drain with a colander when cooked.
- Option B: Slow cooker. You can use this method I've linked to here but no need to use the aromatics mentioned as my recipe has tons of flavour. Drain with a colander when cooked. http://cafejohnsonia.com/…/how-to-slow-cooker-black-beans.h…
- Option C: Pressure cook. Cook on high pressure for 28 mins and let the pressure release naturally (don't release manually). Drain with a colander when cooked.
- Place 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large saucepan and add the diced onions, heat on medium until onions are softened (approx 7 minutes).
- Add the remaining oil, the spices and the garlic and stir for 2 minutes ensuring the garlic does not overcook.
- Add the boiled water and then the beans, stirring well to distribute the spices and garlic evenly.
- Cook for 5 minutes, add the apple cider vinegar and remove from the heat.
- Roughly mash the beans, leave some of the beans whole for texture.This might take a few minutes. This could also be done in a food processor by pulsing briefly, or with a stick/immersion blender. Remember to keep some of the texture of the beans rather than making the mixture smooth.
- Garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley and serve immediately. Can also be frozen in individual portion sizes using a muffin tray.
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