Today I wanted to share this recipe on How to make refried beans in the crockpot. You will save so much money plus Crock Pot Refried Beans taste amazing.
With very little effort, you will have refried beans that are so healthy and delicious.
Crock Pot Refried Beans
Instead of paying around $1 per can, you can easily make your own refried pinto beans and place them in the freezer to save your family a ton of money. Then you only have to heat them up to eat.
Plus, you can make them in your crockpot with very little effort and have them ready and waiting!
I have never much liked authentic refried beans.
My kids love them at Mexican restaurants, so they started requesting them at home.
What are refried beans?
They are always filled with lard and grease that they never have seemed appetizing to me.
And even the supposed best canned refried beans are less than appealing to me. However, this easy recipe is delicious and much healthier for you.
Plus, it’s so quick once you can grab them out of the freezer.
No more canned refried beans! This recipe for Crock Pot Refried Beans is so tasty and I absolutely love it!
Are refried beans bad for you?
Well the ones laden with grease and fried in lard definitely are not good for you. However, this recipe is not only cheaper but they are also MUCH healthier for you.
These are packed with protein and healthy. Plus, instead of paying around $1 per can, we can now easily make our own and place them in the freezer for WAY less.
Not only are they cheaper to make, but they are also MUCH healthier. You will love this refried beans healthy version.
Plus, it greatly reduces the refried beans calories.
These Crock Pot Refried Beans are very easy to make in your crockpot with very little effort.
Once they are frozen all you have to do is heat them up to enjoy with your favorite Mexican dish. You can freeze them in 1/2 cup servings as well if you want some individual sizes.
What can you serve Slow Cooker Refried beans with?
A few of our favorites include include:
- Crock Pot Mexican Taco Casserole Recipe
- Easy Crock Pot Street Tacos Recipe
- Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken Recipe
- The Best Crockpot Chicken Tacos Recipe
Let’s make this delicious and easy Mexican Refried Beans recipe!
It is amazing! Don’t skip on the onion garlic seasonings because they make a huge difference.
How do you make refried beans from scratch?
It is so simple!
You need a slow cooker to make these Crock Pot Refried Beans.
There are some really good ones on sale right now. If you work all day, you may want to invest in a programmable crockpot.
They are awesome because you can set them to start later, or to stop and switch to warm once the dinners are ready. Amazon has some on sale right now too.
I also really like this crockpot. Now, it’s not programmable but it’s so handy!
It has the feature where you can lock the lid down.
That feature is so nice for when you take meals to potlucks or need to transport the meal somewhere.
Now if you want to save yourself even more time (don’t we all? 
) then I really recommend these Crockpot liners. They make clean up a breeze.
Instead of scrubbing and washing the pot, you can just toss the liner. It is practically no clean up.
What kind of beans are refried beans made of?
Traditionally refried beans are made from pinto beans. However, you can make refried kidney beans or black beans if you prefer.
Ingredient for Crock Pot Refried Beans:
- 2 pound of pinto beans
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped (you can just cut in half, if you want the flavor, but want to take the onion out later)
- 6 cups of water per pound of beans (basically you just want double the amount of water in there than there are beans)
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 teaspoon of garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- 2 teaspoons of black pepper
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeded
How to make Refried Beans:
- Thoroughly rinse the beans. Place in crockpot and add all other ingredients.
- My first time to make the beans, I put the onion in whole (I just cut it in half). The second time, I threw in chopped onions and the onions stays in with the beans. I prefer this way, but if you are not an onion fan, you might just want to toss them in whole so you can strain it easier.
- Cook on HIGH for 8 hours or LOW for 8-10 hours stirring occasionally. They will start to get really soft.
- Once they are cooked, use a slotted spoon to scoop out some of the mixture into another bowl. Begin to mash the beans with a potato masher (you could use an immersion blender but it is easy to do it by hand).
- Add liquids from the crockpot as needed to get the consistency you prefer.
- You get to decide how “mushy” you want them. Continue to do this until all beans have been mashed.
- Then place the beans into containers for the freezer until ready to eat. 1 pound of dried beans will make about 4 “cans” of beans.
- When you are ready to eat, just thaw in your fridge and cook on low in a sauce pan, until heated through.
Alternatively, you can make these over medium heat in a large skillet or large pot. However, we prefer refried beans in the slow cooker with this tasty refried beans recipe.
Tips for making Crock Pot Refried Beans:
I highly suggest that you cook 2 pounds of pinto beans at a time. This will yield 8 cans in one sitting.
Since you are doing the work, you might as well, make as much as you can. It really isn’t anymore work and get double the amount.
Also, if you use chopped onions in this recipe, save time by learning how to freeze onions . It’s so handy for this recipe and many other recipes being able to just grab already chopped onions from the freezer.
I use a small food chopper or processor to quickly and easily chop onions and freeze them in bulk. It is such a time saver.
Now that you know how to make refried beans from leftover pintos, it is so easy.
Homemade refried beans make the best side dish. These cooked beans are tender and delicious.
Print this Crock Pot Refried Beans recipe below:
- 2 pound pinto beans (dry beans)
- 1 onion peeled and chopped (you can just cut in half, if you want the flavor, but want to take the onion out later)
- 12 cups water
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp pepper
- 1 jalapeño pepper (deseeded)
-
Thoroughly rinse the beans. Place in crockpot and add all other ingredients.
-
My first time to make the beans, I put the onion in whole (I just cut it in half). The second time, I threw in chopped onions and the onions stays in with the beans. I prefer this way, but if you are not an onion fan, you might just want to toss them in whole so you can strain it easier.
-
Cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or LOW for 8-10 hours. They will start to get really soft.
-
Once they are cooked, use a slotted spoon to scoop out some of the mixture into another bowl. Begin mashing with a potato masher (you could use a food processor here but it is easy to do it by hand).
-
Add liquids from the crockpot as needed to get the consistency you prefer.
-
You get to decide how “mushy” you want them. Continue to do this until all beans have been mashed.
-
Then place the beans into containers for the freezer until ready to eat. 1 pound of dried beans will make about 4 “cans” of beans.
-
When you are ready to eat, just thaw in your fridge and cook on low in a sauce pan, until heated through.
Is it cheaper to make Crock Pot Refried Beans?
1 can of refried beans run about $1 on sale. You can get one pound of beans for $.99 which yields about 4 cans of beans.
That means they only cost $.25 per can. Now you can normally get a better price on the dried beans if you buy the 2 pound bag, so double check that.
Obviously this is worth the effort.
The result of Crockpot refried beans:
These are quite delicious. I did add more garlic salt when I was mashing them up, but they are delicious.
I have never been a fan of refried beans, because of all the oil and fat in them. These have none of that, so I feel very good about feeding this to my family.
I hope you enjoy this recipe for Crock Pot Refried Beans and hopefully it will help you save more money!
These slow cooker Refried Beans are so yummy. Give this slow cooker recipe a try.
Try these other delicious Crock Pot Recipes, too.
Everyone will love this Crock pot ranch style beans recipe that is hearty and delicious and seasoned to perfection.
Mindy says
These are delicious. I freeze in quart size freezer bags and lay them flat in the freezer. We like to make bean dip out of them by adding sour cream and a little cheese to them while they are heating up. It’s great with tortilla chips or fritos. I also use them to make burritos.
Carrie says
That is a great idea! I’m going to have to try that.
Melissa Sperka says
What a terrific technique!
Joanne says
The jalapeno adds such wonderful flavor here. So easy in the crockpot too!
Jennifer Farley says
Refried beans are such a staple for me! Love this recipe!
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
I can’t wait to give this a try!
Aysegul Sanford says
This is such a handy recipe. Especially with all the winter cooking i have coming up. Thanks for sharing.
Lori @ RecipeGirl says
ohhhh, good idea for and easy way how to make these homemade!
Jan says
I don’t understand the recipe. If you do 2 pounds of beans, that’s 18 cups of water. That’s a really big crockpot.
Carrie says
Sorry for the confusion – I made this recipe and I used 6 cups of water per pound of beans so it would be 12 cups to make 2 pounds and this was about to fit into my 6 quart crock pot. I updated the recipe so that it is more clear.