Taco night is a favourite in our home. When I started making my own re-fried beans to accompany the meal, I noticed that we began saving money on meat because my kids absolutely loved the beans and sometimes would opt to have beans as their only protein.
Overtime I’ve discovered that making slightly more refried beans on taco night means having leftover bean for lunches, for making quesadillas for the freezer or letting the kids have a “bean dip plate” (warmed up refried beans, sour cream, salsa & tortilla chips) for dinner if mom and dad are having something more adult that they don’t always enjoy. By having the extra bean and using it for something for another day, I’m eliminating the need to make them a separate time to cook my make ahead quesadillas to freeze, which are also a very popular hot lunch item with the kids.
The process for refried beans is very easy with my biggest disclaimer being to soak the beans the night before! I’ve forgotten to do this many times but remember the following morning. In that case, I soak them right in the morning until I pressure cook them around 3pm and in that case I would need to increase the pressure cook time to about 1 hour in order to get fully cooked beans that can be blended smooth.
Refried Beans
Equipment
- 1 Instant pot 6 or 8 quart
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried pinto beans soaked in water overnight
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Place 2 cups of dried pinto beans into a bowl and cover completely with water. Let beans soak overnight.
- Drain beans and pour them into an instant pot
- Add salt, cumin, onion, cilantro and chicken broth
- Cook on manual high pressure for 20 minutes
- Once time is up, carefully do a quick pressure release
- Using an immersion blender, blend beans until smooth
