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Canned Refried Beans Recipe
Canned Refried Beans
Refried Beans Recipe
This recipe will give you quick and easy way to make refried beans out of a can taste absolutely wonderful. Those beans you get at your favorite Mexican restaurant won't be able to hold a candle to these beans, I promise you.
I have listed the prep and cook time at thirty minutes but you a=could actually make this meal in probably fifteen minutes or less start to finish if you used a micowave. The results won't be anywhere near as good if you do, but it is still pretty tasty. I live on a boat so I don't have a microwave at my disposal and the simple truth is that this meal tastes MUCH better when cooked slowly in a pot or pan.
Because you will be using canned ingredients, they need to be cooked out for a while to remove that slightly metallic? taste. Also the longer this recipe cooks the more the flavors blend together and the better the taste.
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Cook Time
Tasty Refried Beans
Why Canned Food
I love to cook and we all pretty much agree that fresh, scratch-made produce tastes better than canned foods so why would I choose to write so many recipes based on canned ingredients? Part of it is the challenge to be sure. Transforming canned food into something delicious is not always that easy so it takes some creative thinking to bring out all the right tastes and flavors.
But mostly it's a necessity for my life-style. I am a liveaboard which means that I live on my boat. I am on a mooring ball just off the end of Shelter Island in San Diego, California, in a place the locals affectionately refer to as Rock-N-Rolla because it is quite turbulent with all the boat traffic going by (or nearly ramming you as happened a few days ago). While I am that close to shore, getting fresh supplies is an easy matter of a quick kayak ride to shore and then a little walk to Rosecrans street to the local Ralphs grocery store. But I'm not always this close to shore and sometimes, like when I am sailing from one place to another, I can't just run down to the local supermarket to get what I want.
Living on a boat means you have to be able to make tasty and nutritious meals from canned foods. Just like camping or homesteading. Or if you just don't enjoy cooking like most of my female friends and you just want to be able to make something quick, easy and tasty.
Ingredients
- 1 x Can Refried Beans, (Any Brand)
- 1 x Teaspoon Cumin
- Evaporated Milk
- 1 x Can Devilled Ham
- Chili Powder
- 1/2/ x Teaspoon Paprika
- 1 x Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
- 1 x Can Salsa
Nutritional Yeast
Instructions
- Open the can of peppers and onions or salsa (see Amazon suggestions below) and pour them into the pot that you will be using to cook this entire recipe in. Bring the contents to a simmer and cook for at least ten minutes to cook out the 'canned' flavor.
- While you are simmering the contents from step 1 above, add the cumin. It is good to add dried herbs and spices early so that they have time to release their flavors. Cumin, incidentally is the flavor that you probably associate with your favorite refried beans on the local Mexican restaurant.
- Add the chili powder to the simmering mix. As much as you want. I like it spicy so I add a lot. it also help add a nice red color to the beans which I prefer the the pale, brown color that canned beans often have.
- Add a little paprika (about half a tea spoon). Keep stirring these dried spices into the simmering mix and add a little of the condensed (evaporated) milk if you have to so that it doesn't burn. The milk adds a creamy texture to the beans too that is quite pleasant.
- Add the nutritional yeast and stir that in too. Nutritional yeast is often used as a cheese substitute because it has kind of a cheesy, almost nutty flavor. I like my beans with cheese but, in keeping with the theme of only canned, jarred, dried or preserved foods in this recipe, we are using nutritional yeast.
- Open the can of deviled ham and stir that in. The ham is quite salty so you won't need to add any additional salt to this recipe. The deviled ham just adds another layer of flavor to the beans and keeps the carnivores happy. You can skip it if you are a vegetarian and it won't lessen the flavor of this meal at all.
- After you have stirred in all the dry ingredients and simmered the contents of the canned salsa (or whatever you chose), pour in the can of refried beans and mix it all together. The longer you cook it (on low heat obviously) the better it will taste because the flavors will develop and blend together. When you are finished cooking it, serve it and eat it (see serving suggestions below).
Peppers and Onions
Can of Salsa
In Case You Were Wondering...
Serving Suggestions
Obviously refried beans make an excellent filling for tacos, pita pockets or burritos or the insanely decadent Double Layered Taco. That's where the soft taco is glued to the outside of a hard-shell taco with cheese.
These refried beans are great with rice but they need a little substance, a different texture in my opinion so I like to add some crunch in the form of toasted pita bread or corn chips or even crackers.
Tasty Refried Beans Recipe
One Pot Meals
Cumin For Weightloss
Just moments after I published this hub, I read an article that outlines a dietary study showing good evidence that cumin promotes weight loss. Another great reason to try this refried beans recipe!
