Last Updated on August 18, 2025 by Krista Linares, MPH, RD
If you need inspiration for what to do with leftover beans, look no further than traditional Latin American home cooking!
Beans are an every day staple across Latin America, from Cuban black beans to arroz con habichuelas, and even some simple stewed frijoles de la olla.
As much as I love beans, the thing is it’s impossible to make one serving at a time, so you will (almost) always have leftovers. There’s a reason why our moms were always referring to beans when they reminded us “hay comida en la casa” ;).
Fortunately, Latin American food is an almost endless source of recipes to use up leftover beans.
Whether you made pinto beans, black beans, or a full rice + beans dish, we have 19 genius ways to use up those leftover beans so you can live your best meal prep life (not to mention save money and reduce food waste).
This article is featured in the “hay comida en la casa” issue of our zine! Read the whole issue here.
What to do with any leftover beans
These ideas will work well for any bean you have leftover!
Make refried beans:
You can take any cooked bean and make refried beans, which gives you an even wider variety of choices for ways to use them (see later section for ideas)! If you’re scared of refried beans because of the term “refried”, it may help to know they’re healthier than they sound!
(Read more: are refried beans healthy?).
Check out this guide to making refried beans from cooked pinto beans.
Quesadillas
You can easily make a complete, healthy meal with quesadillas! One of my top secrets for making healthy quesadillas is to add beans. Any bean will do (even refried), but my personal favorite is black beans.
(Read more: are quesadillas healthy?)
Check out this easy black bean quesadilla recipe
Burritos
Like quesadillas, burritos are a convenient package for a complete meal. You can easily add healthy proteins like chicken and–yes–beans! Not to mention how easy it is to add veggies to a burrito.
Check out these Tex-Mex bean and cheese burritos
Make a bean salad
A bean salad works well if your beans are relatively plain, or even canned. A three bean salad is an easy way to meal prep and goes well with tostadas or chips for a snack.
Check out this Mexican three bean salad
This Peruvian lima bean salad is zesty and is a great food to pack for lunch.
Refried beans
Refried beans are my personal favorite way to repurpose beans. They make such a great base, it’s easy to add other toppings and ingredients whenever you use refried beans.
Here are my favorite ways to use leftover refried beans (or leftover beans that you turned into refried beans)
Tostadas
Tostadas are my go-to “I-don’t-know-what-to-cook” meal. They’re easy, versatile, and delicious.
I prefer tostadas with refried beans as a base, because the refried beans help other toppings stick to the tostada.
(Read more: Are tostadas healthy?)
Want to make your own tostadas? Check out my guide on how to make tostadas in the oven
Check out this black bean tostada recipe with roasted vegetables.
Nachos
I’m very picky about my nachos. An absolute non-negotiable in my book is refried beans. I’m even picky enough that I demand each individual chip has a dollop of refried beans (yes this means I only eat nachos I made myself).
Adding refried beans to nachos makes them higher in protein and fiber, and is one of my top tips to building healthier nachos.
Check out my tips for how to make healthy nachos (and my favorite nacho recipe).
Make a dip
Leftover refried beans make a great dip for a party or appetizer. You can combine canned or homemade refried beans with cheese, spices, and other mix-ins for an easy snack! Serve with tortilla chips or raw cut up veggies if you’re looking for a healthier snack.
Check out this recipe for bean dip.
Sopes
Like tacos and burritos, sopes are a very flexible option. Thick corn masa cakes can be filled with whatever filling you have on hand, including meats and vegetables. Traditionally, sopes include a layer of refried beans as the first base to help the other toppings stick.
I grew up eating sopes with refried pinto beans and ground beef, but my favorite topping these days is chicken tinga.
Here’s my go-to recipe for sopes de tinga.
Molletes
Think of molletes as the Mexican beans-on-toast. Toast a bolillo roll and top with refried beans, and whatever other toppings your heart desires! I love molletes as a way to get a good serving of vegetables and fiber in the morning. Plus, they only take 5-10 minutes to make.
Learn how to make molletes here
Pinto beans
My favorite way to use leftover pinto beans is to make refried beans. But there are a few ideas well-suited for whole pinto beans, as well.
Breakfast tacos
Of course, you can use any bean for breakfast tacos, but I think pinto beans provide the Southwest vibe that works best for breakfast tacos (think Texas).
I love breakfast tacos because you can take a few kitchen odds and ends (eggs, tortillas, leftover beans) and make a full, nutritionally complete breakfast.
While breakfast tacos don’t have to use beans, they’re great for using up the last spoonful or two of beans you otherwise wouldn’t repurpose into another recipe. How’s that for reducing food waste?
Need some guidance? Here’s a really good basic breakfast taco recipe.
Make sopa tarascan
Sopa tarascan is a traditional pinto bean soup from Mexico. You can use this technique for almost any recipe–stewing leftover beans with seasonings and extra water, then blending it into a creamy soup.
But sopa tarascan is one of the most classic versions of this technique, and it’s delicious!
Here’s a really good version of sopa tarascan.
Black beans
Black beans may well be my favorite food in the world. I’m partial to Cuban black beans, and I think they make great leftovers for dishes like stuffed peppers or stuffed plantains. But plain stewed black beans are great choices for the salads in this list.
Make stuffed peppers
A great way to reimagine black beans is to stuff them into bell peppers and bake them! Bean-stuffed peppers are a full dinner, providing protein, carbs, and veggies.
What I love about stuffed peppers for dinner is that the portions are easy to eyeball. One half pepper is a complete meal in and of itself, but can easily be combined with a side salad or some rice if you need a little extra.
Try this recipe for black-bean stuffed peppers
Make stuffed plantains
Similar to stuffed peppers, you can stuff leftover beans into sweet plantains and roast them for a tasty, 30 minute dinner.
What I love about this meal is that you can put it together in just 30 minutes, but it feels special.
Here’s my favorite recipe for stuffed sweet plantains with black beans.
Make nopal black bean salad
This nopal black bean salad is so easy to put together because it uses canned nopales and either leftover or canned black beans.
For this recipe, I recommend plain cooked black beans instead of Cuban black beans. Drain the beans completely of any extra liquid before continuing with the recipe.
Here’s my go-to recipe for nopal black bean salad.
Enfrijoladas
Enfrijoladas were one of my favorite meals growing up. Now that I cook myself, I realize my mom was combining leftover beans with leftover chicken and some store bought tortillas to make a meal that was super simple for her, but felt like home to me.
If you’ve never heard of enfrijoladas, think of them as enchiladas but with a bean sauce instead of a chile sauce.
Want to try it for yourself? Check out this enfrijoladas recipe.
Make Cuban black beans
While I usually make my Cuban black beans from dried beans, you can also turn leftover plain beans into Cuban style black beans!
To do so, take fully cooked black beans, stew with water and Cuban sofrito.
Black bean soup
I highly recommend using Cuban black beans to make black bean soup, but you can do this with any bean.
Simply take leftover beans and add more water (or broth) to get a soupy texture, and boil. You can use an immersion blender to get a creamy texture.
This black bean soup recipe uses canned black beans, but you can use any cooked beans you have.
Beans and rice
Leftover rice and beans can come in the form of two separate dishes—leftover beans plus leftover rice. Alternatively, you may have a rice and beans dish that is cooked as one, such as congrí.
Whatever your favorite style of rice and beans, these are some great ideas for leftover beans + rice.
Serve with an egg for breakfast
My favorite breakfast hack? Take your favorite dinner leftovers and add an egg!
Rice, beans, and an egg is a traditional breakfast in many parts of Latin America, most notably Costa Rica.
I’m partial to doing this with Cuban black beans.
This tip is particularly helpful when you only have one small scoop of beans left but don’t want to waste any food.
Make a burrito bowl
With leftover beans and rice, you’re already half of the way to a burrito bowl!
I like to serve my rice and beans with fajita vegetables, cheese, and salsa for a simple vegetarian burrito bowl.
You can also try this simple chicken burrito bowl here.
Arroz mamposteao
Arroz mamposteao is a classic Puerto Rican dish made with leftover white rice and leftover kidney beans or pink beans (habichuelas guisadas).
Learn how to combine leftover rice and beans into an all new dish here.
Conclusion
With these 19 simple ideas, you’ll never wonder what to do with leftover beans again.
Beans are a staple of Latin American food culture, so we are experts at finding uses for them.
Finding creative uses for leftover beans not only saves you time and money, but it makes meal prep more realistic for you, which makes it easier to stick to an overall healthy diet.
This article is featured in an issue of our digital zine, titled “Hay Comida en la Casa”! Read the whole issue for more insights into Latin American home cooking and nutrition.
Here at Nutrition con Sabor, we believe meal prep should be simple and the foods we grew up with nourish us. If you want nutrition with a side of culture and zero food-shaming, you need to join our community! Get started by signing up below and you’ll get a free one-week Mexican meal plan as a thank you 🙂