7 Types Of Beans & How To Cook With Them
Bean lovers, rejoice! Once limited to soups, crockpot sides, and picnic salads, beans are now the shining star of everything from one-pan dinners to creamy dips. But while they are incredibly varied and versatile, no two types of beans are the same: each boasts its own unique texture and flavor that lends itself uniquely to flavors and styles of dishes. So if you’re just now joining the bean craze, how do you know which beans to use, and when?
A long-time bean lover, I’ve developed numerous bean-forward recipes over the last several years. I’ve befriended many different types along the way, and I’ve learned a lot about where each shines. Here are seven of my favorite beans and how to use them in your cooking:
Red Kidney Beans
A signature ingredient in chili, red kidney beans are medium-sized with a light earthy flavor and a soft, smooth texture. They’re often paired with bold flavors that amp them up, and they’re especially common in dishes from Creole and Latin cuisines. Since they hold their shape well, they’re a great choice for stirring into stews, salads, and pilafs– and they also make a great filling for wraps (as well as tacos and burritos!)
Gateway dish: Vegetarian Chili
Protein count: 8 grams per ½ cup
Black Beans
They might be small in size, but black beans are BIG in flavor. Packed with earthy richness, they bring deep umami to any dish they touch. Black beans are too small to hold their own in a soup or stew (unless they’re paired with other beans), but they’re great folded into rice pilafs or fresh salsas and they also make a wonderful topper for everything from salads to nachos. And they’re my bean of choice for roasting and blitzing into homemade veggie burgers.
Gateway dish: Nachos Supreme
Protein count: 7.5 grams per ½ cup
Garbanzo Beans
Most famously a key ingredient in falafel, garbanzo beans (or chickpeas) are prized for their mild nutty flavor and endless versatility. Since they hold their shape well and easily absorb other flavors, they work well as the base for a salad or saucy skillet dinner (like my Indian Butter Chickpeas!). They also make a great snack or app: you can serve them simply marinated in oil, herbs, and spices, or roast them with seasonings until crispy. And if you want the ultimate party dip, you can blitz them into creamy hummus.
Gateway dish: Sticky Sesame Broccoli & Chickpeas
Protein count: 6 grams per ½ cup
Cannellini Beans
Cannellini beans are the Cadillac of the white bean world: larger than most other white beans and infinitely creamy. Like chickpeas, they make a great protein-packed base for a vegetarian dinner, and their pleasantly mild flavor means they pair well with almost any cuisine (I’ve used them in everything from Green Chili Enchiladas to my Pizza Beans Skillet). They also blend well into dips and can be used to thicken soup– though I personally think they shine most when left whole.
Gateway dish: Creamy Tuscan White Beans
Protein count: 7 grams per ½ cup
Butter Beans
Butter beans are the grown-up (and infinitely more delicious) version of a lima bean. Large, creamy, and mild in flavor, they also shine in skillet dinners, particularly those with thicker sauces. They’re also great in soups or stews, where they hold their shape better than many other beans. Even if you were the kid who religiously picked every single lima bean out of the school’s veggie medley, I beg you to give these a try.
Gateway dish: Butter Beans alla Vodka
Protein count: 6 grams per ½ cup
Pinto Beans
Most commonly transformed into refried beans, pinto beans are less familiar to most of us in their whole form. They have an earthy flavor and a soft texture, so they meld well into saucy dishes where there are other strong flavors going on. They work great in soups, where they can serve as part of the thickener, and they also make a great addition to a pot of classic baked beans.
Gateway dish: Smoky Pinto Beans
Protein count: 7.5 grams per ½ cup
Black-Eyed Peas
Pea might be in their name, but these black and white specimens are, in fact, beans. Commonly found in the cuisine of the American south, black-eyed peas are often stewed with pork and greens and eaten for good luck on New Year’s Day. But that’s not the only time or place they can shine. Black-eyed peas are also great in salads and fresh salsas. They can be blended into the creamiest of hummus and folded into fritters, and they also make a great bruschetta topper.
Gateway dish: Cowboy Caviar
Protein count: 6 grams per ½ cup
A Word About Cooking Beans From Scratch:
Cooking beans from scratch (or dried) gives you the opportunity to impart more flavor into the beans as they cook, as well as better control over their texture. But in this busy world we live in, it's a bit of a labor of love. Here at Delish, most of our recipes assume you'll cracking open a can or carton (and most of the recipes linked above reflect that), BUT if you want to put the time and care into cooking that bag of artisanal dried beans, we 100% support that too!
What are your favorite ways to cook with beans? Let us know in the comments below.
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