Cuban Refried Beans Recipes

CUBAN RED BEANS

Steps:

• Start by arranging the dried kidney beans on a baking sheet and sorting through them. Make sure to discard any stones or broken beans. Rinse them and set them aside.
• Place the beans, ham hock, and 10 cups of water in your instant pot. Press the "pressure cook" function on your instant pot and select 1 hour and 5 minutes. Once the time is up, do a quick release. When the pin in the lid drops down, safely open the lid.
• Remove the pork hock and discard any fat. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and chorizo and cook for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in the sazon, cumin, oregano, sofrito, and tomato sauce. Cook for 1 minute.
• Add the cooked beans and ham hock meat to the pot along with the bay leaf, dry white wine, potatoes, and butternut squash. Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes and butternut squash are tender.
• Uncover, season generously with salt and pepper, and cook until the beans thicken. This should take about 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!

REFRIED BLACK BEANS

Steps:

• Place black beans into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let stand 8 hours to overnight. Drain.
• Place beans in a pot and add enough water to cover; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer beans until very tender, about 1 hour.
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium; cook and stir onion and garlic until onion is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add black beans, green chiles, chili powder, and cumin; cook and stir until flavors blend, about 5 minutes.
• Blend black bean mixture in a food processor until smooth. Add tomato paste, chicken broth, vinegar, and salt; blend until desired consistency is reached. Return beans to pot and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes more.

CUBAN REFRIED BEANS

Steps:

• Bring beans to a boil in a saucepan.
• Strain liquid and discard.
• Loosely mash beans with a fork.
• Fry and crumble Spanish Chorizo. Discard fat.
• Fry onion till translucent.
• Fry garlic in olive oil.
• Stir in onion, garlic, olive oil, chorizos and salt/pepper.
• Return to saucepan and over low heat stir until heated thoroughly.

REFRIED BEANS

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and chili powder and cook for 1 minute more. Stir in the beans and chicken broth and cook until the beans are warmed through, about 5 minutes. Mash the beans coarsely with the back of a wooden spoon, adding more chicken broth to moisten, if needed. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the cilantro.

CUBAN-STYLE BLACK BEANS

Steps:

• Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, garlic and oregano and sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of beans to pan. Using back of fork, mash beans coarsely. Add remaining beans, broth and vinegar and simmer until mixture thickens and flavors blend, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Mix in sugar, if desired. Season beans to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

REFRIED BEANS (BETTER THAN STORE-BOUGHT)

Steps:

• There is no need to soak the beans for this recipe. Rinse the dried beans then add to a large pot. Add the onion half, garlic cloves, bay leaf, and cilantro sprigs. Cover with at least 3 inches of water. Place the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the beans are extremely tender (almost silky inside), 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If during cooking the beans look dry, add a splash more water.
• Remove the onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf, and cilantro sprigs, and then discard them. Season the beans and liquid with salt. Start with 1/4 teaspoon and go from there based on your tastes.
• Drain the beans, but do not discard the cooking liquid. We will use some of the liquid for making the refried beans. You will need about 3 cups of the beans to make refried beans. If you have more than 3 cups, reserve the rest for another recipe.
• There is no need to soak the beans for this recipe. Rinse the dried beans then add to a 6-quart pressure cooker (we have an Instant Pot). Add the onion half, garlic cloves, bay leaf, and cilantro sprigs. Add about 6 cups of water, but do not fill past the 'max fill line.' Add 1 teaspoon of neutral oil like vegetable or olive oil (this prevents the beans from foaming).
• Seal the lid and cook on High Pressure for 30 minutes, and then allow the cooker to naturally release (you can tell when it is safe to open the cooker when the steam release valve drops). We recommend you read the user manual of your specific pressure cooker before using this method.
• Remove the onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf, and cilantro sprigs, and then discard them. Season the beans and liquid with salt. Start with 1/4 teaspoon and go from there based on your tastes.
• Drain the beans, but do not discard the cooking liquid. We will use some of the liquid for making the refried beans. You will need about 3 cups of the beans to make refried beans. If you have more than 3 cups, reserve the rest for another recipe.
• In a large, skillet - a cast iron pan is perfect here - heat the oil (or butter/lard/bacon drippings) over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until it smells sweet and is starting to brown around the edges, 4 to 5 minutes.
• Stir in the minced garlic, cumin, and cayenne pepper and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• Add the 3 cups of cooked beans, moving them around the pan for a minute or two so that they are heated through. Add 1 cup of the bean cooking liquid and then use a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon to mash the beans into your desired consistency.
• If, as you are mashing, the beans seem a little dry, add a splash more liquid. The beans do dry out over time, so it's a good idea to keep the cooking liquid near by to maintain the best consistency, especially if you are making them in advance.
• Taste the beans and adjust with additional salt, pepper or spices. Serve with a squeeze of lime and your favorite toppings scattered on top.
• Use 2 (15-ounce) cans of pinto or black beans. Two cans will be approximately 2 3/4 cups of beans, which is close enough to 3 cups for this recipe.
• Open the cans, drain, and then rinse the beans. Follow the recipe instructions in the section labeled 'Make Refried Beans' above, but replace the 3 cups of home-cooked beans for canned beans. Instead of using the bean cooking liquid for thinning the refried beans, you will need to substitute for another liquid. We recommend using a flavorful stock (vegetable stock or chicken stock), you will need 1 to 1 1/2 cups.

QUICK CUBAN STYLE BLACK BEANS

Steps:

• Chop onion, garlic, scallions, red pepper, and cilantro in a mini chopper of food processor.
• Add oil to a medium-sized pot on medium heat.
• Add vegetables to the pot and saute until soft, about 3 minutes.
• Add beans, water, bay leaf, cumin, oregano, red wine vinegar, salt and black pepper and bring to a boil.
• Lower heat and cover, simmer about 15 minutes stirring occasionally (adjust water as needed).
• Taste for salt and serve.

UNFRIED REFRIED BEANS

Steps:

• Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker.
• Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed.
• Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.
• Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

EASY 1-POT REFRIED BEANS

Steps:

• CANNED: If starting with canned beans, simply open cans and set aside. As the original recipe is written, about 2 15-oz (425-g) cans will yield 3 cups cooked beans.
• FROM SCRATCH: If cooking pinto beans from scratch, we recommend this recipe, which yields 5 cups cooked beans. We recommend reducing the serving size to six 1/2-cup servings (rather than 10 servings), which would yield 3 cups cooked beans. The spices and diced tomatoes with green chilies are optional.
• INSTANT POT: If cooking pinto beans in an Instant Pot, we recommend following this recipe but swapping the black beans for pinto beans. Be sure to save any leftover cooking liquid.
• REFRIED BEANS: To prepare refried beans, heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add oil (or water) and onion. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until translucent and tender - about 4-5 minutes. Then add minced garlic and cook for 2 minutes more. Turn down heat if browning too quickly.
• Next add your cooked beans and any of the cooking liquid. Depending on your cooking method, your beans may be looking somewhat dry or they may be submerged in cooking liquid. Because we're going to simmer the beans even more, you want them to be just submerged, so add only as much vegetable broth as needed to just cover the beans.
• Bring to a low boil over medium heat. Then add your salt. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes to further cook and tenderize the beans. If they begin looking dry or stick to the bottom of the pan at any point, add more vegetable broth to moisten.
• Your beans should now be tender. Our preferred way of mashing is with an immersion blender. If using an immersion blender, tip the pot to one side so the blade can be submerged and blend until the beans are creamy and smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, a bean or potato masher will also work. It just takes more work and they won't get quite as creamy.
• If you're blending or mashing and your beans have become too thick, thin with more vegetable broth as needed.
• Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more salt to taste. We didn't find the beans needed more than this. However, you could add chili powder or chipotle pepper in adobo for some heat, or some ground cumin for smokiness.
• Serve as is, or garnish with desired toppings (lime juice, hot sauce, cilantro, red onion, or this vegan Mexican-style queso would be delicious).
• Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator up to 4-5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month. To reheat, warm in a pot or saucepan, adding more broth as needed.

CUBAN BLACK BEANS

Steps:

• Add water and black beans to your Instant Pot, set on high pressure for 35 minutes.
• Allow Instant Pot to naturally release.
• When Instant Pot depressurizes, warm olive oil over medium to medium high heat in a medium frying pan. Add in onions, garlic, peppers, oregano, cumin, bullion, salt, and pepper to pan and cook until onions and peppers have softened.
• Once onions and peppers have softened add in a cup of cooked black beans, and gently smash the beans into the onion mixture.
• Return the onion mixture to the Instant Pot.
• Press the saute mode to low heat for 20 minutes and stir beans occasionally. After the first five minutes, add in the wine and vinegar.

CUBAN-STYLE BLACK BEANS

Steps:

• Soak the beans with the baking soda in 10 cups of water for about 3 hours. Rinse and drain.
• Add the beans to a Dutch oven and add 10 cups fresh water, along with the olive oil, cumin, oregano, sugar, vinegar, cilantro stems, bay leaves and onion. Simmer until the beans are soft, about 2 hours. Add 2 teaspoons of salt (or more to taste) and freshly ground black pepper to taste.