Taco Bell bean burrito is a meatless burrito of warm refried beans, diced onion, shredded cheddar and red sauce in a flour tortilla. Nothing gets cooked beyond warming the beans and the tortilla. Five minutes gives you four burritos.
The sauce is where most homemade versions go wrong, and it is not the Mild packet. Their red sauce tastes closer to a thin, mild enchilada sauce than to the hot sauces in those packets. Reach for enchilada sauce and the burrito suddenly tastes right.
Thin the beans before they go anywhere near the tortilla, because canned refried beans are stiff enough to tear it. A splash of water loosens them into something spreadable that spoons flat instead of clumping. Too thin and they soak through, so stop at a loose paste.
Taco Bell Bean Burrito
Course: Main CourseCuisine: American, MexicanDifficulty: Easy4
burritos349
kcalThese freeze for up to three months wrapped tightly in foil, then reheat in a 350F oven rather than the microwave. Dice the onion very small, since large pieces stay raw and sharp against the soft beans.
Ingredients
4 flour tortillas (burrito size)
1 can refried beans (about 16 oz)
¼ cup finely diced onion
¼ cup red sauce or mild enchilada sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Directions
- Beans: Warm the refried beans in a saucepan or the microwave, thinning them with a splash of water until spreadable.
- Tortillas: Microwave each tortilla for 15 seconds, or wrap the stack in foil and heat at 350F for 10 minutes.
- Fill: Spoon the beans down the center of each tortilla, then scatter over the finely diced onion.
- Finish: Add the shredded cheddar and the red sauce.
- Roll: Fold the sides in, then roll it up tightly from the bottom.
Two questions come up every time someone makes these, and the sauce one has a real answer.
FAQs
Is red sauce the same as Taco Bell’s mild sauce?
No, and swapping them is the most common mistake here. The packets labeled Mild, Hot and Fire are vinegary hot sauces, built for drizzling on top. The red sauce inside the burrito is thinner and milder, so a mild red enchilada sauce lands much closer.
What size can of beans do I need?
The recipe says one can without naming a size, which trips people up at the shelf. A standard sixteen-ounce can spreads across four burritos with very little left over. Buy the larger thirty-ounce can only if you are doubling the batch.
Why is the sodium so high?
Nearly eighteen hundred milligrams per burrito, which is most of a day’s recommended limit in one hand-held meal. Canned refried beans, the cheese and the sauce each carry salt, and they stack up. Low-sodium refried beans cut several hundred milligrams without changing the texture at all.
Do I need to grill or toast it?
The chain does not toast theirs, and that softness is part of what you are copying. It is assembled onto a warm tortilla and wrapped, so the whole thing stays pliable. Toast it and you have made something else, pleasant but not this.
Can I make the sauce myself?
Both routes work, and homemade keeps better than you would expect. Making their mild sauce from scratch is worth it as a topping, which is what that sauce is really for. For inside the burrito, a jarred mild enchilada sauce is both faster and closer.
What should I make if I want something more filling?
Add rice, or step up to a burrito with meat in it. Its closest relative is the discontinued Enchirito recipe, built on the same beans and red sauce but with beef added. Keeping the bean burrito plain is rather the point, so I would make both.
The source recipe does not state a can size for the refried beans, and its written method stops before the burrito is rolled, so that step has been completed here. Nutrition is the source plugin’s automatic calculation and should be treated as an approximation.
