Honestly, I just take a can of pinto or black beans, garlic and spices and dump it all into the food processor/blender. It's not refried, per se, but it tastes the same and is much healthier. And it's quick!

Use "manteca de puerco" to refry them, I tried to translate as I thought it would be "pork grease" turns out google says manteca translates into "butter".

It's not the healthiest thing but it gives refried beans a great taste and it's quite common to use it for that purpose

Here's the recipe that I learned from a good friend of mine from Mexico, and then modified slightly.

2 yellow onions
4 cloves garlic, crushed
8 cups homemade vegetable stock
1 16oz bag dried pinto beans, combed through
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp dried oregano

Soak beans for 10-15 minutes in warm water, rinsing at least once. Saute the onion in vegetable oil until translucent, 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the beans, and cover with stock. Stir in seasoning. Bring to a gentle simmer, and cook for 1-2 hours, gradually adding stock. The beans are done cooking when they are tender to the tooth. Cool completely, and let sit overnight.

When ready to make your refried beans, scoop out some of the cooked pinto beans, mash them with a potato masher (or use a food processor if you want them to be very smooth) until desired consistency is reached. Bring vegetable oil to heat in a skillet, and cook mashed (pureed) beans until warmed through. Top with cheese, if desired.

I've used this for a hungry crowd of girls--it worked really well!

Crockpot Refried Beans

Originally from Crockpot 365

Ingredients

2 cups of dried pinto beans (picked over)
water
1 1/2 yellow onions
1 1/2 red onions
10 whole garlic cloves
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon coriander

Instructions

1. You will need to soak the beans overnight. Not only will this soften them better, but it will help release the gas. Rinse the beans well in a colander, and dump into the crockpot. Add enough water so the beans are fully immersed, with an additional two to three inches of water on top. Put the lid on your crockpot. Do not turn on.
2. Let them soak overnight
3. In the morning, drain and rinse the beans under cold running water.
4. Put them back in the crockpot with enough clean water to cover the beans with about an inch of water.
5. Stir in the cumin and coriander.
6. Peel and cut the onions in half, and put them in the crockpot. Peel all of the garlic, but toss them in whole.
7. Cover the crock and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until the beans are tender.
8. I cooked ours for exactly 9 hours. The were soft, and some of the beans had split.
9. Fish out the onion and the garlic cloves. If you want to keep some of the garlic in for flavor, you may. It's your choice. If the beans are soft and you still have a bit of liquid left, carefully drain it, saving a little to help with the smooshing and for added flavor.
10. Using a potato smasher, or hand mixer, mash the beans.

@m1n4

Manteca de puerco is lard. It's most definitely not butter. Mantequilla is the Spanish word for butter.

My refried beans are definitely not traditional, but always delicious. I saute some chopped onion and minced garlic in a little butter and olive oil, then add cooked, cooled black beans (or canned, rinsed black beans), some salt, pepper and dried epazote (all seasonings to taste). Then I barely cover with vegetable stock or water, cover and simmer until the liquid is nearly absorbed. Then I mash the beans roughly with an old fashioned potato masher, stir in a couple pats of butter, and sprinkle lightly with queso fresco.

Refried beans recipe from my "house mom" in Mexico: boil a pot of beans for a long time, drain, then add an ungodly amount of oil. No need to use tupperware or anything like that - just throw the big pot into the fridge and reheat for the next night.

Refried bean recipe from my Mexican boyfriend (and the one I use to this day to thrill my very gringo husband): Put a fair amount of oil into a pan and fry tasty things in it (I normally do corn tortilla - makes good chips - jalapeno or two, onion, several cloves of garlic). Let the tasty things get kinda burnt, then remove from oil. Then add in a can of plain refried beans (you could make your own just by mashing up beans but I'm lazy), cumin, chili powder and cayenne. If you let the oil cool before you throw in the can of beans, you can stir first and then reheat everything to make beany perfection.

@radleyas Thank you!!! I learned something new today :)
and yes, butter is mantequilla and that's why it didn't make any sense

I just mash the leftover pinto beans from the crock pot after we eaten them as a simple soup for dinner. They are cooked with garlic and seasoned with salt. Mashed this way you don't have to add fat if you don't want to. You can, of course.

My Latina MIL does all sorts of things with hers, adding fat sometimes, grated cheese sometimes, a swirl of cream, etc.

Mantequilla is the word for butter in some places! like spain... but in other countries it is manteca. but when it refers to animal by product it is referring to lard. puerco is pig. aslo depending you can call it grasa. spanish has many words for the same things. that´s what makes it so much fun. and confusing when it come to reading recipes from different countries. cheers.

I've always thought lard is what makes the best most authentic refried beans. BUT...get this, peanut butter can be substituted for the lard and the result is so delicious. You don't taste the peanut butter per se but it does create rich, creamy and velvety texture with a slight hint of sweetness. I suppose the oil from the peanut butter is the main key. I confess i had this at a party once where we were all shocked to find that peanut butter was the trick, and i regret i never got a "recipe" from the person.

I made some a while ago that I thought were awesome, I put the recipe on my blog:
http://emilysrecipeblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/roasted-garlic-chipotle-refried-beans.html
Gets me wanting to eat some right now.

I find the simpler the better! Using manteca (lard) will definitely give the refried beans an extra punch of authenticity. We substitute with olive oil to lighten up the calories, without losing the flavor.

Thanks for suggesting our recipe to your readers.

Abrazos!!!
Yvette http://muybuenocookbook.wordpress.com

I LOVED the food when I was in Belize! I was there teaching at a summer camp, and ate with a host family every morning, so everything was homemade and soooo good!. Fry jacks were my favorite food I had while I was there, with the potato salad a close second.

This is the way my great grandma, grandma and mother have always made them. The secret is to cook your own beans.

All you need is

Water
Pinto or Peruvian beans
1 small white onion cut in half
Salt to taste (once beans are almost done)

Refried beans taste better if you use lard. I use corn oil just cause it's not as unhealthy as lard. They are delicious just on there own. You can add as much broth as you like depending on the consistency you want. If I ever have fresh made salsa I will ass that to the beans and let it boil together before mashing them. Top it off with some queso fresco or queso cotija.

Most places in Belize do in fact use lard in the beans (though the more touristy places are switching to vegetable oils). Also, if you're looking to recreate Belizean beans, most places are working with kidney beans most of the time, they are the most widely available beans. There are other beans, but kidneys are the staple in the diet there. Most people don't put a whole lot more into their refrieds, though some will make coconut rice or coconut beans, which are pretty amazing (using coconut water, not coconut milk). And don't forget to top with Marie Sharps! That's the official hot sauce! It's becoming more widely available in the US. If you can't find it, if you do like spice, another pretty Belizean thing is house-pickled hot peppers. Just throw the hottest peppers you can stand in a jar of vinegar with some salt for a few days and enjoy.

Good luck!

For quick and easy refried beans I use two cans of either black beans or pinto beans (though currently black beans are my favorite). Drain the cans but reserve the liquid. Pour both cans into a pan that has been heating on the stove with a few tbsp of oil and a good 2 cloves of minced garlic. Let the beans cook for about 5 min. then add cumin, chipotle pepper, cayenne, paprika, and some salt. All spices to taste (I'd guess around a half to a full tsp of each). Mash up the beans with a potato masher and if they feel too thick for your taste add some of the reserved can liquid. Continue seasoning, adding liquid and mashing until you have what you want. Mmmm. now I know what I'm having for dinner tonight!

I tried a delicious refried beans recipe a while ago with chorizo in it, and it turned out to be pretty tasty. I wrote posted the recipe here for people to try themselves: Mexican refried beans recipe