Cafe Rio Style Black Beans

Cafe Rio Style Black Beans are simple to make at home and taste just like the black beans at our favorite fast-casual restaurant Cafe Rio! Serve them on a salad, in burritos, with tacos, quesadillas, or just own their own with some rice. This will become your go-to black bean recipe.

A few weeks ago, my friend Mel, aka the Dancin’ Queen, had to make Cafe Rio beans for 250 guests. Yes, two hundred and fifty.
We talked about how this was going to happen.
She gathered ingredients.
I showed up with my apron and big bowls.
We went to work.

About an hour and a half later, we had made four batches of beans (she made a test batch the night before). Each batch contained enough to serve fifty. Seriously, it was really simple. The hardest part, or I should say the most tedious part, was opening all of the cans. It’s a REALLY easy recipe. The finished product? Yum. These beans are flavored perfectly and go great on the side of any Mexican dish. This recipe tastes exactly like the black beans you can get at Cafe Rio. The texture is just right.

I’m all about a good copycat recipe you can make at home. Sauté some garlic, cumin, and olive oil over the stove. Once it becomes fragrant (about a minute) add the beans and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes juice and season to taste. When you’re ready to serve these yummy beans, add the chopped cilantro and enjoy!!

I’m posting the recipe for 8 and for 50. Depending on how many you are serving, or how much you love beans, or how much you love your hubs after he eats beans- you choose the quantity. If you want to use dry black beans take a look at my No-Soak Instant Pot Black Beans.

Interested in making more copycat Cafe Rio recipes?

• Instant Pot Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
• Cafe Rio Style Sweet Pork Salad
• Pico de Gallo
• Cilantro Lime Rice
• Cafe Rio Style Creamy Tomatillo Salad Dressing
• ABK’s Ultimate Chunky Guac
• Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

Cafe Rio Style Black Beans

4 from 3 votes

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Author: Si Foster

Servings: 8 -50 servings

Ingredients 

for 8 servings:

• 2-15 oz cans black beans, (drain one can, don’t drain the other)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-11.5 oz can tomato juice
• salt, kosher or sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

for 50:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 12 cloves garlic, about 1/3 cup chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup ground cumin
• 12-15 oz cans of black beans, drain 6 cans, do not drain 6 cans
• 60-70 oz tomato juice, about 1 1/2 46 oz. cans

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Instructions

for 8:

• In a non stick pan, cook garlic, cumin and olive oil over medium heat until fragrance is released, about one minute. Be careful not to burn garlic.
• Add beans, cook down for about 5 minutes until some of the liquid from the beans is absorbed and evaporated.
• Add can of tomato juice and seasoning to taste.
• Stir in chopped cilantro when ready to serve.

instructions for 50:

• Place oil in large pot.
• Add garlic and cumin, cook over medium heat until fragrance is released, about one to two minutes.
• Add black beans and tomato juice and salt to taste. Cook until mixture is heated through on medium heat.
• When mixture has cooked 20- 30 minutes, turn off heat and add chopped cilantro.
• Cool and store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
• When ready to serve, heat slowly on medium heat, stirring gently to avoid burning beans at bottom of pan. Add more tomato juice if needed.
• This may be made and stored up to five days before serving.