MY FAMILY NOW DEMANDS HOMEMADE REFRIED BEANS. They are THAT good. And, yes, I've spoiled them, but I'm okay with that. I've been on a personal journey to make amazing refried beans in my Instant Pot. Partly because the canned version always looked unappetizing. I started testing recipes already out there, but was immediately disappointed. Most lacked flavor and common sense - making the recipe unnecessarily difficult. Many called for only 1 cup of beans - already that was not enough for dinner and leftovers. Some included a ton of bean cooking water and then simply instructed to discard it post cooking. Again, why so much water in the first place and why throw away the cooked water when it can be used later to reheat the beans on the stovetop and even eaten as a delicious soup? One recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of beans in the mini 3-quart Instant Pot. Again, why? Why not use whole numbers? I want things easy in the kitchen! And upping the quantity of beans but reducing the amount of water helped the recipe not only fit into the mini Instant Pot, but also gave you enough food for the whole family plus leftovers. I also learned that adding meat was just extra. Feel free if you want to, but you don't need to. These beans are delicious even if you keep them vegetarian or plant based. And, this way, my mother-in-law, my kids, and I can safely eat these beans without second thoughts. There was also no reason to add extra spices like some recipes called for - cumin, oregano, or chile powder. Again, you can add them, but I prefer my beans simple and a blank canvas for everything else that stacks on top. The only slight switch I made was to add a tablespoon of ghee along with the oil, which rounded out the flavor profile and helped add an Indian touch.
The most important lesson I learned on this journey was that the type of bean you use is important. Pinto beans are ideal because they soften quickly. The roman bean looks similar but takes longer to cook and does not soften in the same way. I learned that the hard way. Be sure to check your package!
One thing that ramped up flavor was the tarka (taking from our Indian cuisine) of the oil-ghee, onion, and other ingredients. Browning them was a perfect layer of flavor and depth. Some recipes called to cook this for 10 minutes - which was way too long - 5 is perfect. This recipe is so good that I was literally scraping the last bits of beans out of the pot with my fingers and then licking them clean. If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is.
Stovetop Cooking Tips: If you want to make this on the stovetop follow the steps below in a roomy, heavy pot and cook for about 2 hours. Then, proceed with the remaining recipe. You may need a little extra water to account for evaporation. If you love my Instant Pot recipes, consider ordering my latest cookbook, Instant Pot Indian, where I give you recipes for all three key sizes of the Instant Pot and help you make family-style portions with full Indian flavor.
Instant Pot: Mexican No-Fry Refried Pinto Beans
Pressure Cooker Size: 3 quart or larger *
Warm Up: 21 minutes
Cook: 40 minutes
Cool Down: 10 minutes natural release + manual release
TOTAL: 1 hour 11 minutes
Makes: 4 cups
2 cups dried pinto beans, picked over and washed
1 medium yellow onion, minced and divided
6 cloves garlic, minced and divided
1 medium jalapeno, minced and divided (keep the seeds & membrane)
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups water
1 tablespoon avocado oil (or another vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon ghee or unsalted butter
1. Soak the beans in hot, boiling water for at least 1 hour or in room temperature water for 6 hours to overnight. Drain and discard the water. Many recipes skip the soaking - and if you do, increase the cook time to 45 minutes. Keep in mind that soaking beans even just for 10 minutes removes naturally found anti-nutrients. Always discard this soaking water, which is different than the cooking water.
2. To the inner pot of the Instant Pot, add the soaked and drained beans, ½ the onion, ½ the garlic, ½ the jalapeno, the bay leaves, the salt, and the water. Stir.
3. Lock the lid into place and make sure the pressure release valve is set to the sealing position (upwards). Press the PRESSURE COOK button and then press the PRESSURE LEVEL button until the panel reads HIGH. Adjust the cook time to 40 minutes.
4. Once the cooking is complete, release the pressure naturally for 10 minutes. Then, manually release the remaining pressure. Press CANCEL and remove the lid. Drain the cooked beans over a bowl to catch the cooking liquid. Remove the bay leaves and save for the next step. Pour the cooking liquid into a jar and save - some for Step 6 and the rest in the fridge.
5. Replace the inner pot in the Instant Pot base. Select the SAUTE setting and adjust to NORMAL. When the indicator flashes HOT, add the oil and the ghee. Once warm, add the bay leaves (it’s okay that they are a little wet) and the remaining onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Cook until brown, about 5 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom. I like getting as much flavor out of my bay leaves as possible.
6. Add the cooked beans back into the pot and with a potato masher or an immersion blender mash them down. Add small amounts of the reserved cooking liquid to loosen the beans up until they are your desired consistency. I end up using about a ½ cup of cooking liquid. Press CANCEL when finished, remove and discard the bay leaves, garnish the beans with sliced jalapeno and onion and serve warm. The beans will last in the fridge for about two weeks. They also freeze beautifully.
Notes: Two cups of beans soaked in boiling, hot water for 1 hour yield 3 3/4 cups - soak them 2 hours or more and you'll have 4 3/4 cups. On the cooking liquid - the best way to use it is to reheat the beans on the stovetop. Refrigerated beans clump up. Yes, you can microwave them, but I don't like to use the microwave if I don't have to. Instead, I have small pans to reheat my beans. Instead of loosening up with plain water, I just use the jarred cooking liquid so you keep all that delicious flavor intact. You can also add minced onion and jalapeño to the water to drink as a soup - perfect for in-between means or before heading out to dinner so you don't overeat.
Watch me make them! I KNOW the video gets wonky at the end. I need to work on my camera position. The i-phone goes from horizontal to vertical without any warning and it's driving me nuts. But, instead of holding myself back, I'm sharing what I have and just trying to improve it daily. Please head to my YouTube channel and subscribe so you never miss another video.
BACKSTORY: I've been playing around with the best refried beans in my IP for some time. I started as I always do with a recipe in my all-time go-to Joy of Cooking. Though it's not Instant Pot, it does help me frame a recipe in my head. Also, I don't always love the ethnic recipes in here but again - for me it's a guide. In my version of this book that I've had since high school, it's on page 276. They make the refried beans recipe with black beans, which sure you can do but I wanted to use pinto. They also use canned - I wanted to use dried. And they saute just onion and garlic -- I decided to add jalapeno. Then, I look at Cooking With Your Instant Pot Mini by Heather Schlueter. The recipe is on page 42. I generally liked this recipe and it got me started, but what I didn't like was that it only uses 1 cup of beans (like most IP recipes), it uses way too much water (4 cups), and then it really does not tell you what to do with the extra water later -- do NOT throw it away. It's BEAN BROTH that can be used in all sorts of ways. Why do I want to share my backstory? So that you see the processes that I go through to truly perfect my versions of recipes AND so that you see the cookbooks I refer to in my own kitchen. While I typically don't cook from cookbook -- I often for recipes I'm unfamiliar with use them as guidelines. No one gets anywhere without standing on someone else's shoulders. Please support other authors as well and buy their books. I will only include titles that I find useful. And just because a recipe may not be perfect to my taste from a cookbook, I still think having the book as a guideline helps and make a huge difference.
[[ recipeID=recipe-8lyrc5s62, title=Mexican No-Fry Refried Pinto Beans ]]
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Keywords: beans, pinto beans
Anupy
March 28, 2023
Hi Erin … I hope this does the trick. We loved it so much that I’ve made it three times since then. Simple ingredients, but slightly more of them and then the oil fry is perfect-o! Let me know how it goes! -Anupy