Mexican food is my ultimate comfort food, especially when camping, and these dehydrated refried black beans totally make my day. Forget that homogenous store-bought gloop that you can buy in a tin. With a dehydrator, you can make sensational dehydrated refried black beans to bring on your backpacking trips. Tent tacos, here we come…
This is a great recipe on its own, whether or not you’re camping. Enjoy them as tacos with your favourite fixings. Serve them along side fajitas (check out these portobello mushroom fajitas for inspiration). Or load them up into a bowl with rice, grated cheese, salsa and avocado for some top notch bowl food.
These dehydrated refried black beans take a bit of time, but much of it is unattended cooking time. You can shortcut the first step by using tinned black beans, but you get a lot more flavour when you cook the beans from scratch. It’s also worth leaving the beans to simmer for a good long while so they get really soft. This makes the beans extra tasty, and also makes them easier to rehydrate at camp.
This recipe calls for epazote, an aromatic Mexican herb. It’s optional, but worth getting hold of if you can. You can purchase it online (along with other specialty Mexican ingredients) from The Cool Chile Company.
I use an Excalibur Dehydrator for dehydrator recipes like this one. Refried beans dehydrate brilliantly and are super quick to rehydrate on the trail. Last time I made this all I had to do was pour boiling water over the beans, cover and wait a few minutes – no simmering required!
For more inspiration and tips, be sure to check out my guide to making your own dehydrated backpacking meals.
Re-fried Black Beans
Ingredients
- 200 g dried black beans
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried epazote optional
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 onion-halved
- A sprinkle of fresh thyme
- 1 onion diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 red chillies deseeded and finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 tbsp epazote optional
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 orange juice of
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- lots of chopped coriander
- brown sugar
- salt and pepper
Garnishes
- cheese
- avocado
- sour cream
- fresh or pickled chillies
- fresh coriander
- pink pickled onions
- hot sauce
Instructions
At home
- Soak the beans in lots of water overnight.
- Next day drain the beans and rinse them, checking for any stray stones.
- Boil in plenty of water with the bay, half onion, garlic and epazote until tender, which takes 1-2 hours-keep checking the level of the water and top up a little if the beans are drying out. When the beans are soft remove the onion and bay, drain and set aside.
- In a large saucepan, fry the onion in the olive oil until soft. Add the garlic and chilli to the onion and fry until fragrant. Then add the paprika, epazote, coriander & cumin and quickly stir-fry.
- Add the cooked beans, orange & lime juice and cook gently until the beans begin to break down and the fruit juice has been absorbed. Add a little water if the mix gets too thick and then taste-add sugar, salt and pepper to your taste.
For dehydrated refried black beans
- Let the refried beans cool thoroughly.Spread the chilli on dehydrator trays covered with non-stick sheets or parchment paper.
- Dehydrate at 63C/145F for 8-10 hours, until totally dry (to speed things up a bit, you can check the chilli after a few hours, peel the partially dried chilli off these sheet, and finish drying on the mesh dehydrator mats).
- Once totally dry, pack the chilli into zip lock bags or use a vacuum sealer which will allow for a longer shelf life.
- On the trail
On the trail
- Put the veggie chilli in a pot and pour water over to cover.
- Place the pot on your stove and heat until boiling. Turn off the heat, cover, and wait for 5-10 minutes.
- Give the refried beans a stir and check if they're fully rehydrated. Add more water to suit your desired consistency. Turn on the stove again and heat until piping hot.
- Serve with rice or tortillas and those tasty garnishes that you’ll be so happy you carried with you!
Portobello Mushroom Campstove Fajitas
Hi Monica,
Thanks for sharing your adventures and recepies.
I wanted to share this site where you can check out dehydrated refried beans and salsas.
You will just need to add hot water, no need to deshidrate them yourself. Authentic Mexican flavor and super convenient.
Take a look at http://www.defrutusa.com
Hi Monica, is the link for your online shop (to purchase your homemade refried baked beans) still active as I receive an error when I click the link?
Hi Jon! Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Apologies but I had to close the shop last year when I moved. I still produce dehydrated food privately. If you want to know more, feel free to drop me an email! monica@eatsleepwild.com
Hi Monica
What is the yield of the dehydrated black beans when you rehydrate them on the trail?
Depends on how much water you end up adding! But the yield will be similar to the cooked version so use that as the basis for measuring your dehydrated portions if that makes sense (if not, let me know). Basically, I eyeball the cooked result to decide how many portions it makes to suit me. Then I dehydrate. Then I divide the dehydrated stuff into however many portions I figured out. On the trail I add boiled water and mix and heat, adding more water if needed to get it to my preferred consistency.
Hi, I noticed this recipe has a little bit of olive oil in it. Do you know what the shelf life is (given they are sealed properly)? We’re going on a few month long hike and want to make sure the food in our resupply boxes are good. I’m packaging meals in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. Any guestamite helps as I’m newer to dehydrating. Thanks!!
I’ve stored this for several months in a sealed bag and it was totally fine (in fact, delicious!). I didn’t include oxygen absorbers (though it’s a good idea!). I use a little olive oil in most of my dehydrated food recipes with little ill effect (while being conscious not to go overboard given the tendency for high fat dehydrated food to go rancid). The oil is mainly for sautéing things like onion, garlic, etc. Sounds like a great hike – enjoy!