Refried beans

(the Tasha version)

This week I’ve illustrated a recipe from my old blog and something I make a lot and tweak the ingredients a bit according to what we have, but mostly it stays roughly the same. Last week’s post took me sooooooo long to create (mostly the illustrations for the illustrated recipe), so I wanted something a bit quicker this week, and so quite a few of the items are reused. I need to get a bit more organised with what I’ve already drawn and make a little library of food I’ve drawn, to make it quicker.

Refried Beans

I will often use black beans instead these days, or sometimes I’ll use a tin of each and increase the other ingredients accordingly. I do always use tinned beans. I have never been very successful at getting the soaking and pre-cooking of beans right, and I find the tinned ones work perfectly and they also mean I don’t have to plan in advance, which rarely seems to work in this household these days. I’ll also use whatever pepper I have available and, if there aren’t any, just leave that out. Sometimes I’ll throw in a courgette as well.

This is my go-to filling for tacos and we’ll usually have shredded lettuce, slices of tomatoes and sometimes guacamole, too. Some people may have grated cheese with it (I don’t at all feel the need for grated vegan cheese - and generally avoid vegan cheeses, except for some of the cream cheeses).

• 1 onion

• 4 cloves garlic

• 3 jalapenos (or 2 small chillis)

• 1 red pepper

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 (400g) tin of kidney beans

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• 2 tbsps tomato purée

• 1 tsp cumin

• other seasoning to taste (e.g. salt and pepper, miso paste, more kick from hot sauce or gojuchang paste)

1. Very finely dice the onion, garlic, jalapenos (or chilli) and red pepper.

2. Sauté the diced vegetables in the olive oil for 10 minutes.

3. Add the (rinsed) kidney beans, stir and leave for 3 minutes.

4. Add the vinegar, tomato purée and other seasonings. Stir and cover for 10 to 12 minutes – on a very low heat.

5. Stir half-way through and add a bit of water if it’s drying out too much.

6. Mash so that it’s of a rough consistency (or you can purée if you prefer it smoother).

I actually can’t remember what we’ve been eating over the last week, except that I definitely made aubergine pasta at least once. Here’s an old illustrated recipe for the sauce. This is something else I make a lot. We have usually put grated mozzarella on it, but now I usually put my ‘cheese’ mix on top - ground almonds, nutritional yeast and sea salt. But this week I two big spoonfuls of Alpro vegan Greek-style yoghurt (I think it’s mostly soy, but still may well count as ultraprocessed), two big handfuls of rocket and a handful of pine nuts, and it was soooooo good! So that’s going to be my go-to topping from now on.

As always, please let me know if you try this recipe out (or the aubergine and tomato sauce, but I’ll do a new and proper version of that at some point). I am not a professional cook or food writer. I’m just sharing stuff that I cook at home, so feedback is really useful.

Next week will be November’s Veg Letter. I wonder what I’ll do this week (and, of course, one day, I will get ahead and have three or four written and illustrated in advance and I can just pick one and publish it). So far, we have courgettes, mushrooms and beetroot. Do say if there’s one you’d like to see (won’t promise to pick that, but I might). I like ones that are particularly interesting to draw, but I really love doing the research to find out some interesting facts.

I’m considering changing the paid subscription offers in the new year. I’m thinking that I might make the illustrated recipes and veg letters available to everyone, but send out a print or postcard to paid subscribers instead. If you have an opinion about that, whether or not you’re a paid subscriber, do say!