As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, my favourite meal is a vegan Cena Mexicana bowl: refried beans, brown basmati rice, sliced fresh avocado, sliced black olives, sliced cabbage (or cole slaw) all topped with chopped cilantro. I’ve been wanting to try making my own refried beans, however, so I’ve been browsing around for a bit and combined a number of recipes and came up with this version, which is delicious! I like my refrieds a bit runny, so I added quite a bit of vegetable broth.

1 tsp. olive oil

1 chopped onion

4 cloves garlic

2 tsp. chilli powder

1 tsp. cumin

1 Serrano pepper sliced

2 drained and rinsed cans of black beans

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 large tablespoon of BTB paste.

Brown the onions for about five minutes (until transparent); add garlic, Serrano pepper, spices and brown for another minute or two. Add the beans, broth, and BTB paste. Once everything is warmed through, put 2/3 to 3/4 of the mixture in a blender and pulse blend to desired consistency (not too smooth). Return to stove with the remaining mixture, stir together, and warm through. Add more broth if necessary, or, if it’s too watery, let it cook for a while to thicken up. Many of the recipes called for mixing in cilantro in the last few minutes, but, once it’s mixed in and heated through, you tend not to taste it as much, so I always add chopped cilantro to the plate, not the pan.