Refried Beans Recipe: Plant-Based & Oil-Free

Double the above for a family-sized portion, this is a small batch that would serve well for a couple to split or for a lone wolf to enjoy through a few meals of tacos and bean bowls.

In this house, refried beans are a staple akin to peanut sauce: they are made about once a week and eaten in all sorts of vectors. Their delayed arrival to the site has been due to me sorting out on the back-end the best way to post our process of how to rehydrate bulk beans, and I finally took a breath and realized that could be its own post some other day. Some folks may be put off by the preparation involved in rehydrating (it’s not at all daunting, but I get y’all are busy), and I figured starting easier may get more beans into you which is the overall objective. :-)

What do beans have going for them?

• Like all healthy foods: they are full of fiber. I’ll say it again, and again, and even some more times: fiber is essential to the proper functioning of your body. While the air is full of folks fretting about protein (which none of us are lacking in), what you may not know is that 97% of y’all are lacking in fiber. What does fiber do again? It regulates your blood sugar, lowers your cholesterol, aids in digestion, and reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease.

• Speaking of protein: beans are full of plant-based protein. Unlike animal products, beans will fill you up without ruining the earth or your endothelial system (or your kin’s).

• There are even clinical studies showing that consuming beans can prevent/protect you from colorectal cancer and intestinal cancer.

• Beans have antioxidants that’ll help prevent a feast of diseases.

• Beans have the ability to drastically reduce our emissions if we swap them out for the animal products that are (again and again) harming your body and harming the earth.

If you’re thinking, “Ugh! I get it with the environmental stuff and the health stuff!” but you’re still not making the steps toward big changes: I see you and remember that feeling well.

The inspiration for this recipe actually comes from the first vegan that ever entered my realm. Chris had a radio show just before mine on our college radio station. We were “friends” from the start, but I was a complete jackass for the first year, because veganism was so counter opposite to my culture that my response was to be passive aggressively offended by his compassionate choice. My cohost and I used to bring in entire meals of chicken (rotisserie chicken, chicken wings, chicken tenders) and would eat them on the sidelines of the studio —in front of Chris. That diet rattled me with correspondingly terrible health all through college, and the Karma of that cruel comedy continues to come right back to me with all the un-named souls who like to send me pics of the meat/cow-breastmilk they are digging into, or spend spans of dinner-time conversations centering around how they’ve been cooking up some fresh souls and how deliciously savory those souls taste when properly heated.

In my last year of college, I met my would-be husband and learned that he and Chris had been close friends since childhood, so the friendship continued past college and I’ve now been growing in that man’s orbit for 19 years. He remains one of two (just two!) friends we have on this plant-based path, and I’m grateful he stuck with us because Q loves him just as much as we do.

One night, Chris came to one of our boardgame-potlucks and whipped up a dish by mixing a can of vegetarian refried beans, a can of Rotel, cilantro, and lemon juice. It was simple, delicious, and swiftly convinced me I didn’t need to be buying the lard-filled bean can version ever again.

We’ve been making something akin to the Chris recipe for years now; and what follows is our bare-bones version, because I err on the side of simple-spinal-columns for posted recipes, and hope y’all will throw in whatever you want to make it your own (that’s what we do over here. Every batch is different, but the framework is the same).

Life is about growing forward. We’ve all made some regrettable choices, the important part is how we take new information and use it to better the earth, yourself, and your kin.

Want to make a small yet profound step? Stop eating the beef that is harming the earth, our bodies, the body of that cow, the bodies of all the species harmed from our animal agriculture footprint, and start eating some delicious beans instead. :-)

Framework for beans. Truly all you need are the beans, garlic, tomato, and salt.
Smoked paprika gives it a deeper flavor that is akin to smoked meat. Lemon juice lightens up the density of the bean’s flavor palate.

We love cilantro and I was amazed to learn how much health is packed into it, but you can cut it out if you’re not a fan.

Want it spicy? Throw in whatever peppers or hot sauce you can get your hands on. We often put pickled jalapeños in our batches.

Why isn’t there oil in this? I’ll copy from previous posts. :-)
Because all the nutritionally-focused, whole-food docs are harking that we need to limit our processed oil intake and this dish really doesn’t need it.
Why are oils considered processed? Because “They contain no fiber [like you get if you instead ate nuts, seeds, avocados, etc], no minerals and are 100% fat calories. Both the mono unsaturated and saturated fat contained in oils is harmful to the endothelium, the innermost lining of the artery, and that injury is the gateway to vascular disease.” .
Says who?! Well, we have Dr Caldwell Esselstyn (gold medalist turned cardiologist/heart surgeon, who was the first to prove that you can reverse and prevent heart disease through no medications, just plant-based whole-foods), Dr Dean Ornish (another doc who proved the same reversal and prevention, and is now showing all sorts of other diseases one can avoid following a plant-based whole-food diet), Dr Neal Barnard (who showed all of the above and that plant-based whole-foods can reverse Diabetes or completely prevent you from getting it), the list goes on and on.

Time saving trick: while the beans are simmering away and drying themselves out, you could add your measured tomatoes to a pouring vessel and grate your garlic on top.

When the beans are dried enough and it’s time to start adding incremental list of ingredients, I start with paprika (stir around to well coat), then I add a table spoon of the garlic (stir around and mellow a bit), then add in the rest.

Why space out garlic? Garlic produces different flavors based on how long it’s cooked. I enjoy the mellow-caramelized flavor of garlic and I love the bright-sharp-spice of fresh garlic. If you stagger it, you get both. :-)

There is no need to chop up all those cilantro stems and leaves! Cilantro stems are safe to eat, and you’ll save yourself some time by just ripping them into a size that’ll fit in your pan, and then just pureeing them with everything else.

Puree and then let it bubble away until it is at your desired temp and thickness.

Finished product.

Tastes good on it’s on, tastes good with tacos, and tastes good in bean bowls with black rice, easy avocado, kale & quinoa, quick-pickled cabbage, quick-picked radish, and enchilada sauce (recipe coming soon).