
Change taco night forever! Forget everything you think you know about refried beans – making them from scratch is SO easy, nutritious and adds an incredible amount of flavour to all your Mexican favourites. Try it with tacos, burritos, nachos, quesadillas, taco salads…the possibilities are endless. To be honest, when we formulated this recipe, we used nacho chips as a utensil to eat all the leftovers.
The best part about this recipe is that it’s completely customizable and very difficult to do “wrong”. You never have to waste beans again because it’s works well if you have leftover cooked beans and is a great solution if you’re like me, forget they’re on the stove and accidentally turn your bean salad to mush. You can substitute sprouted black beans, change up the spices and blend more or less (or mash by hand), depending on your texture preference.
I reserve the water that I cook the beans in to use for a bit of extra flavour, but you can use plain water. Bonus tip: you can also save the bean water as a delicious addition to soups or chili.
The chipotle powder isn’t required, but does add a really nice smokey flavour and mild spice (just add a pinch at a time and taste test because a little goes a long way!). If you don’t have chipotle powder you can try some smoked paprika and cayenne, just smoked paprika if you prefer it mild, or leave it out entirely if you want a more neutral flavour. You can also switch up the flavour by adding some diced jalapeno. No matter what spice combination you use, I think you’ll be amazed at how much the flavour of the sprouted beans themselves really comes through.