Homemade Refried Beans (Slow Cooker & Instant Pot Directions)
Looking for a family favorite refried beans recipe?
It’s super easy and inexpensive to make smooth and tasty restaurant-style refried beans to enjoy at home as a delicious snack, side dish, or to incorporate into meal ideas.
This vegetarian recipe uses easy to find healthy ingredients and produces fantastic tasting beans!
Just toss all the ingredients into your slow cooker, wait a few hours, mash them up, and you’re done! That’s it!
These beans taste so yummy and flavorful – I promise you’ll never want to buy canned refried beans again.
Hip Recipe Tips:
- You can definitely alter the seasonings to taste. I prefer a little more cumin in mine onlinepared to most, and from-scratch beans are pretty plain so they do need to be seasoned well with salt.
- Using one jalapeño doesn’t make the beans spicy, yet adds nice flavor in my opinion. For spicier beans, you’ll want to add more or consider adding some cayenne pepper to taste.
- Mashing the beans can be done by hand using a potato masher or you can transfer them to a blender. I personally prefer using an immersion hand blender, as it’s so easy to just use it right in the pot after cooking.
Homemade Slow Cooker Refried Beans
yield: 6 SERVINGS
prep time: 10 MINUTES
cook time: 4 HOURS
total time: 4 HOURS 10 MINUTES
Make these easy slow cooker refried beans for your side dish or as a delicious dip!
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry pinto beans (about 2 cups)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large jalapeño, diced and seeds removed
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 6 cups water or vegetable broth
Directions
1
Rinse and clean beans well. Place them in a slow cooker along with the onion, garlic, jalapeño, pepper, salt, cumin, and chili powder.
2
Add water to slow cooker. Cook on low for about 8 hours, or on high for 4-5 hours. (I put them in before bed and they were ready in the morning!)
3
Separate the beans from liquid (but save some of the liquid) and mash them to desired consistency either by using a hand masher, blender, or immersion blender.
4
If the beans seem too dry for your taste, add some of the cooking liquid to get them to the consistency that you prefer. Season generously with salt, and mix well.
5
Optional Instant Pot Directions:
Set the pot to Sauté function and saute the onion, jalapeño, and garlic for a few minutes with a tablespoon of olive oil. Continue with the same process and add all ingredients. Close the lid and seal.
Set cook time to 45 minutes on the Bean/Chili setting or Manual/High and let the pressure release for 20 minutes after cook time. Continue with the same process to mash.
Prefer to use your Instant Pot for this refried beans recipe?
I’ve tried this recipe using both cooking methods and the beans onlinee out equally delicious! Using the Instant Pot is even faster!
I have actually been using the Instant Pot method more often since it’s so quick. I use the same ingredients except I sauté the onions, garlic, and jalapeño first right in the pot. Then just seal the lid and set the cooking time to 45 minutes on high or the bean setting, followed by a natural release afterward.
These refried beans make a great dip and make for amazing bean burritos and tostadas! 😋
My kids are obsessed with refried beans and this is such a great, healthy way to make them, while also saving money. A one-pound bag of dried pinto beans at the store is priced around $1, while most of the time you’d be paying at least that for one small can.
You can also freeze the leftovers to use in future bean recipes, so consider making several batches. The recipe above makes about 5-6 cups of refried beans.
Make these easy homemade flour tortillas to go along with your refried beans!
