I love tacos. It’s one of our go to meals at home. I’ve learned I REALLY like taco meat with refried beans cooked in it.
I don’t pay much attention to calories when it comes to any food, but something I definitely pay close attention to is the ingredient list.
Do I recognize the words? How long is the list? Do any of these seem unnecessary?
I have found that refried beans are one of many products that, when bought in the least expensive form, contain a lot of unnecessary ingredients.
For this reason I started buying organic refried black beans simply because that was the only alternative at the store that had an acceptable ingredient list. Organic prepared black beans, water, sea salt.
No natural flavors, no lard, no additives for retaining color or texture.
But then my beans went out of stock! And they’ve stayed that way!
For a while we were just making taco meat without them, but it doesn’t taste as good and the meat doesn’t go as far without it!
So I recently started making my own refried beans. Does it take a little more time? Yes. But it’s not bad at all!
- Drain your can or box (yes, “boxed” beans is a thing - and actually my preference!) of beans
- Add 1/4c water to a pot with a splash of oil, add in your drained beans, stir & cook covered on medium heat for 5 minutes
- Turn heat to low and use a potato masher (or a fork if you’re like me and don’t have all the fancy kitchen things) to smash the beans up to desired texture, stir & cook UNcovered for 3 more minutes
- Add any desired sea salt, cilantro, lime juice or other yummy things — although I usually don’t add anything since the beans I use usually already have sea salt in them and I’m adding it directly to the taco meat anyway
Pro tip: Pinto beans have a creamier texture than black beans, but both turn out fine!
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