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Refried Beans with Flour Tortillas and Pickled Red Onions

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Makes 4 Servings 1x

Time 20 minutes with cooked beans

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Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup lard, bacon fat, or drippings from Mexican chorizo, 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, or 1/4 cup good-quality vegetable oil
  • 3 cups drained cooked or canned pinto, pink, or black beans (reserve the liquid if you cooked them yourself)
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin, or to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
  • Salt and pepper
  • Pickled red onions (optional, see method below)
  • Flour tortillas for serving (recipe below, if you feel like making your own)

Instructions

  1. Put the fat in a large skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add the beans. Mash with a large fork or potato masher until they’re beginning to break up.
  2. Add the onion, cumin, and cayenne and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue to cook and mash until the beans are more or less broken up (some remaining chunks are fine) and the onion is lightly cooked, about 5 minutes more. Thin with a little reserved cooking liquid or water to adjust the consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Garnish with pickled red onions and/or anything else from the list below, and serve with flour tortillas.

 

—Recipe from How to Cook Everything: Completely Revised Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Recipe variations

Quick Pickled Red Onions
Put about 1/3 cup vinegar (red wine, sherry, or apple cider) in a medium skillet. Squeeze in the juice of a lime and stir in 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and sugar. When the mixture bubbles, add a thinly sliced red onion and cook over high heat, stirring, until the onions soften a bit and turn pink about 2 minutes.

 

More Garnishes for Refried Beans

  • Minced fresh or pickled chile
  • Chopped fresh cilantro
  • Sliced radishes
  • Chopped seeded tomato
  • Grated cheddar, Monterey Jack, or Chihuahua cheese, or crumbled queso fresco
  • Crumbled cooked fresh or chopped smoked chorizo
  • Sour cream or crema
  • Hot sauce
  • Limes wedges or zest