These vegan gourmet refried beans are delicious. Most re-fried beans you get in Tex Mex restaurants are a tasteless mush. The stuff in tins isn’t any better.
This recipe uses some Old El Paso re-fried beans, but adds in a whole load of flavour, texture and nutrition. It really is in another league. But you use any re-fried beans brand you can find.
Sure there’s a lot of ingredients, but nothing too fancy. The beauty of it is that you can make a massive quantity and freeze it. That way when you want a wrap, a baked potatoe filling or a breakfast side pot you can just defrost what you need.
This recipe makes around 22 freezer trays worth. That’s enough for 44 wraps! Or even more baked potatoes or breakfast pots. It’s so delicious that you’ll get through it quickly though.
Be careful with your choice of wraps – because not all are vegan. A lot contain l-cystein that can come from chicken feathers or human hair. It’s an amino acid often added to flour products to improve texture. However I have checked extensively, and both Waitrose & Sainsbury’s wholemeal wraps use a precision fermented version of L-cystein!
You can play around with the various quantities in this vegan gourmet refried beans recipe – don’t be a slave to the recipe. If you want it a bit more spicy, chuck in more chilli. Not enough tomatoes – add in another tube of tomatoe puree. Be brave and experiment to get it just how you like it!

vegan gourmet re-fried beans for wraps etc
Ingredients
- 5 whole tins of El Paso refried beans – or similar.
- 5 whole was 4 tins borlotti beans – I upped this as seemed not beany enough!
- 3 whole tins of tomatoes – I accidentally used 4 this time.
- 2 whole packs of Chillies about 6-8 chillies – Scotch bonnet = 1 large; finger chillies 12
- 6 whole medium onions = 1500-1600g
- 3 whole large peppers = 450g
- 2 whole bulbs of garlic. 60-70g
- 2 flat tbsps Marigold low salt stock powder 2 flat tbsps. = 25g
- 2 tbsps Chilli sauce to taste Tabasco or similar
- 2 tbsps Soy sauce to taste – about 2 tablespoons – 30g
- 3 packs enchilada seasoning 28g pack – used 4 packs McCormick chilli seasoning this time.
- 1 tube Tomato puree – 1 tube. 200g
- 1 jar Jar of Sainsbury’s Chipotle paste - 90g
- 3 tbsps of yeast flakes = 10g
- 2 tbsps of smoked chilli/paprika. 12g
Instructions
- Fry the onions, chillies, garlic and pepper together in very large pan until the onions are nicely browned.
- Can do the chillies and peppers in Actifry for 12mins or fry in the pan
- Add in the enchilada or chilli mix just before the end and fry together for a few minutes.
- Add in all the refried beans, and canned tomatoes to the large pan and mix up. Bring to a gentle simmer.
- Add in the soy sauce, stock powder & tomato puree, and keep stirring while it simmers and the flavours integrate.
- Can cook in the oven (on 125°C for 30 - 45 mins or so.
- Finally near the end, add in the borlotti beans and cook for another 5 mins or so on a low heat/in the oven.
- Add more water if needed to get a good consistency. It wants to be wettish, but not too sloppy, or when you put it in the wraps it will go everywhere, but it mustn’t be too dry either. Quite wet, but not too wet!
- Portion up into 350-370g lots – the last time I did it, I used 370g – which is good for 2 standard sized wraps. So 185g per wrap.
- For the wrap, spread the refried bean mix just to the right of centre in a long line, in a wholemeal wrap add on top sliced avocado, some vegan mayonnaise, vegan cheese, griddled peppers, and griddled, tempeh, with a liberal dousing of chilli sauce.
- Roll up and re-heat in the microwave for about 60-90 seconds per wrap.
- serve with veg, hummus, chips etc....