Salvadoran Red Beans Recipe 2 Ways
I could literally eat Salvadoran Beans (Frijoles Salvadoreños) every day. Especially if they're refried and served with plantains, vegan scramble and crema!! Today I’ll show you how to prepare my family’s beans recipe from El Salvador two ways and my favorite breakfast of all time - “El Desayuno Tipico.” El Salvador’s traditional breakfast made vegan.
The key ingredient to this beans recipe is patience! I know I know…that’s the last thing you have in your pantry …same but I will share a short cut. Beans can take a long time to cook but that slow cooking process is what gives beans their flavor. So let’s get into it.
Where to find Salvadoran Red Beans?
You can typically find them at many Latin American Grocery Stores, for example if you live in the Los Angeles Area, you can go to Northgate, El Superior or even Vons! But if you can also find it online on Amazon . You can also use small red beans but the flavor is just slightly different.
Salvadoran Red Beans 2 Ways
Ingredients
- 2 Cups or 1 lb of Salvadoran red beans or any other red bean
- 1/4 White Onion (divided in half)
- 1/4 Green Bell Pepper (divided in half)
- 3 Large Cloves of Garlic
- 1/4 of Serrano Chile (no seeds) *optional
- Salt
Instructions
- Rinse your beans and soak them overnight if you can, if you can’t no big deal, your cooking time will just need to be increased
- Drain beans and add them to a medium to large pot. Add enough water to cover them about 1-2 inches above the top of the beans.
- Turn on heat to high . To pot of beans add 1/4 of the onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1/4 of the green bell pepper and 1/4 of the serrano chile. Bring to a boil.
- Once beans are brought to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cover. (you will not salt them yet since this will delay the cooking process)
- Set your timer to 45 min and then you will add salt. Add 1tsp of salt at a time until your desired salt level. To taste for salt level, taste the broth only.
- Continue to cook for another 45min to 1 hr if you did NOT soak your beans prior. If you did soak your beans prior you will only need about 30 min more cook time after this step.
- Once beans are tender your beans are ready to eat :D. Enjoy as a soup with some fresh tortillas and vegan queso fresco and avocado or you can make refried beans like the the following recipe!
Salvadoran Refried Beans
Although I love whole Salvadoran beans as a soup..nothing beats the refried version!! Now that the long part is done all you have to is add a little more aromatics and blend them.
Salvadoran Refried Beans
Ingredients
- All the beans from the prior recipe
- 1/4 White Onion
- 1/4 Green Bell Pepper cut into smaller pieces
- 1/4 Serrano Chile
- 1 Tbs Oil
- Salt if needed
Instructions
- Add oil to a pan and add onion slices and bell pepper and serrano to a pan and cook them on medium heat until they are nice an charred.
- To a blender blend add the beans (don’t add too much of the soup if you a lot) Add the beans and all the garlic onions etc that you had in that soup.
- Add the charred onions and peppers and add a bit more salt if desired.
- Add back to the same oiled pan and cook until thickened. If you want to use them for pupusas (recipe here) you just need to cook them for about 20 min until most of the water is evaporated and they are hardened.
Notes
If you want to know how to pair these refried beans with my favorite breakfast you can check out the blog here
If you want to see the full video you can click on the below.
Check out more vegan food and travel videos on my YouTube channel
