40 Best Bean Recipes

The world of beans is one of my favorite culinary playgrounds. Beans are beautiful, nutritious, adaptable, and delicious. Each bean is full of personality, and as you cook through different types, it is like making new friends. I even had the pleasure of writing the introduction to Rancho Gordo’s The Bean Book, a definitive book on the subject of heirloom beans. Below you’ll find some of my favorite ways to cook them.

1. How to Cook Beans that are Tender, Creamy, and Nearly Perfect

   Traditionally, beans were baked overnight in a Chianti bottle placed near the embers of that night's fire. While not exactly authentic (no fire here), I do a riff on the general idea, using a low-temperature oven and enamel-lined pot.
   

1. White Bean Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil

   This white bean soup is rustic, silky, and built around plump beans simmered in a saffron-tinted broth. A squeeze of citrus, crumbled feta, and chopped olives makes each bite special.
   

2. Health Nut Vegan Chili

   A special, triple-bean, vegan chili inspired by Jess Damuck’s new cookbook. It’s bold, flavor-packed and uses a technique to achieve the best texture of any chili I’ve eaten. It’s time to schedule a big chili night.
   

3. Three Cheese Pizza Beans

   Inspired by the internet-famous Smitten Kitchen Pizza Beans highlighted in Rancho Gordo’s new book, this wintery version has all the much-loved components - tomato, melty cheeses, and giant beans - along with pumpkin, feta, black olives and kale. A favorite one-pan make and bake meal.
   

4. Crispy Chickpeas

   Crispy roasted chickpeas are one of my favorite ways to add crunch and a bit of protein to salads, bowls, and roasted vegetables. There are a few tricks to getting them extra crispy crunchy, and not sad.
   

1. Chickpea & Rice Soup with Garlic Chile Oil

   A simple, chunky rice soup, studded with lots of chickpeas, flecked with kale, and drizzled with a vibrant garlic-chile oil. It has peanuts. It has a dusting of turmeric.
   

2. Ribollita

   Ribollita, a beautifully thick Tuscan stew made with dark greens, lots of beans, vegetables, olive oil, and thickened with day-old bread. One of my favorites.
   

3. Rustic Cabbage Soup

   Hearty, healthy, and satisfying - this cabbage soup recipe is super simple to make. Slice a cabbage into thin ribbons and cook it down in a simple pot of sautéed potatoes, onions, beans, garlic and flavorful broth. Finish each bowl with a generous drizzle of great olive oil, a couple dollops of sour cream and a jolt of something spicy.
   

4. White Bean Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil

   This white bean soup is rustic, silky, and built around plump beans simmered in a saffron-tinted broth. A squeeze of citrus, crumbled feta, and chopped olives makes each bite special.
   

5. Dried Fava Bean Soup with Mint and Chiles

   One of the best and most interesting soups I've cooked in years. Adapted from a recipe in Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen - a dried fava bean and roasted tomato base is topped with a fascinating cider-kissed, tangy-sweet chile topping. This soup is so special!
   

6. Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh)

   An amazing Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh) inspired by a version in Greg & Lucy Malouf's beautiful book, Saraban. At its core, this is a celebratory bean and noodle soup featuring thin egg noodles swimming in a fragrant broth spiced with turmeric, cumin, chiles, and black pepper. Loaded with spinach and herbs, you serve it topped with walnuts, caramelized onions, and a dollop of something creamy. It’s amazing.
   

7. Pierce Street Vegetarian Chili

   The best pot of chili I've made in years. A vegetarian chili recipe Inspired by a bunch of little bags of remnant grains and pulses collected in my cupboards - bulgur, farro, and lentils, join chile peppers, crushed tomatoes, some chickpeas, and a secret ingredient. And for the lentil lovers - here's where you can find more lentil recipes.
   

8. Fire Broth Noodle Soup

   This is the soup that saved me after my dad came home from the hospital recently. It's loaded with good things like beans, greens, and pasta and the broth is spicy and invigorating with lots of pepper, garlic, ginger, and chiles.
   

9. Health Nut Vegan Chili

   A special, triple-bean, vegan chili inspired by Jess Damuck’s new cookbook. It’s bold, flavor-packed and uses a technique to achieve the best texture of any chili I’ve eaten. It’s time to schedule a big chili night.
   

10. Simple Farro & Bean Soup

    A hearty, timeless, comforting soup made with foundation ingredients that are flexible and straight from the pantry - grains, canned tomatoes, beans. There’s chopping to do, which keeps the hands busy and mind focused. And if you have a lot of produce that needs to be used, a soup like this is perfect - eat some, freeze some.
    

11. White Bean Soup with Pesto Herb Dumplings

    The perfect dinner. A hearty white bean soup topped with pillowy dollops of herb-packed pesto dumplings. Both vegan and vegetarian versions.
    

12. Spicy Instant Pot Taco Soup

    Taco Soup, a weeknight winner. A hearty melding of beans, and corn, and taco spices, and quinoa. Finished with avocado and pepitas and a squeeze of lime.
    

13. White Chard Stew

    An A+ white chard riff on a ribollita, using anything and everything on hand.
    

14. Weekday Vegetable Soup

    A simple vegetable soup recipe. Perfect for weekdays. Made with tomatoes, white beans, celery, and some herbs. It's simple, and straight-forward with a finishing basil accent.
    

1. Baked Cabbage Sliders

   Crisp on the edges and packed with beans, quinoa, cabbage, cottage cheese and other good stuff on the inside, these make for an easy, protein-packed meal everyone can personalize with toppings.
   

2. Pan-Fried Beans with Kale

   Golden crusted pan-fried beans are made extra special by loading them up with kale, Parmesan, lemon, walnuts, and nutmeg. So many great variations in the comments as well!
   

3. Black Bean Skillet Dinner

   An on-point, one pan, black bean skillet dinner from Melissa Clark's book, Dinner: Changing the Game. Topped with lime yogurt, avocado, and quick pickled red onions.
   

4. Heirloom Bean and Mushroom “Carnitas” Casserole

   A favorite Rancho Gordo heirloom bean casserole recipe. The smell of garlic and herbs baking alongside the beans, simmering tomatoes, and mushrooms will bring neighbors in off the sidewalk.
   

5. Ultimate Veggie Burger

   The ultimate veggie burger recipe made with a secret trick, garbanzo beans, cilantro, onions, lemon zest, eggs, and bread crumbs.
   

6. Creamy Four Ingredient Chili Mac (Instant Pot / Conventional)

   Chili, beer, and elbow pasta. I know of no other dinner that takes less effort than the Instant Pot version of this. It's literally for nights when take-out takes too long, and is too much effort. Seriously.
   

7. Lemon Gigante Beans

   If you’ve never cooked with giant beans, now is the time. In this dish baby fennel, plump Greek gigante beans, and sliced lemon tangle with a honey-kissed white wine sauce, all finished with a shower of chopped dill. A perfect side.
   

1. Chipotle Cinnamon Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans

   Tender, slow-cooked beans in a red broth tempered with coconut milk toward the end. The broth hums with a strong cinnamon, chipotle, and tomato foundation punctuated with cayenne pepper and Thai chiles.
   

2. Homemade Refried Beans

   If you've only ever had refried beans from a can, this should be the next recipe you cook. Homemade refried beans are a game-changer.
   

3. Berry Beer Baked Beans

   A simple yet over-the-top flavorful baked bean recipe dedicated to my dad. Beans are immersed in a decadent swamp of berry beer, dried berries, molasses, broth, and a few other flavorful accents.
   

4. Turmeric Chickpeas

   Turmeric chickpeas, you can use them in all sorts of things! This includes your favorite hummus, salads, and other chickpea creations.
   

1. Carrot, Dill & White Bean Salad

   Warm, coin-shaped slices of pan-fried carrots, white beans, and herbs tossed with a tangy-sweet lemon shallot dressing. It tastes good the day you make it, even better the day after.
   

2. Asparagus Ribbon Salad with Crispy Chickpeas and Hot Honey

   Shaving asparagus into ribbons turns it into something completely different — delicate, tender, and perfect for a big spring salad.
   

3. Anna Jones’ California Salad

   A California-inspired Miso, Avocado, & Lima Bean Salad from A Modern Way to Eat, by Anna Jones. Seasonal greens and beans are tossed with an assertive, creamy miso dressing. There are crunchy seeds, and broccoli, and avocado - it all comes together into a brilliant, beautiful, feel-good salad.
   

4. Niçoise Salad 

   Everyone can find ingredients to love In this vegetarian take on Niçoise Salad! Beans and artichokes take the place of tuna (or anchovies) here alongside tender potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, and green beans.
   

5. Cocagne Bean & Artichoke Salad

   The bean & artichoke salad I made to take to Easter this year - pickled celery, chopped kalamata olives and toasted walnuts, along with tender artichokes, and lots of the white cocagne beans I picked up at my neighborhood farmers' market.
   

6. Ayocote Bean & Mushroom Salad

   A wintery bean salad made with gorgeous Rancho Gordo ayocote negro beans, and pan-fried hedgehog mushrooms. You get crunch from toasted almonds, and sweetness from dried figs which works nicely to offset the acid in the shallot vinaigrette. There's also some shredded kale involved. It's a good lunch salad, and you can make a good portion of it in advance.
   

7. Parmesan Celery Salad

   A breezy summer-spirited lunch salad made with celery, beans, and Parmesan. And a glance at my attempt at organizing some of my pictures into albums.
   

8. Giant Black Bean Salad

   A twist on the ubiquitous black bean salad - giant black beans and toasted almonds are tossed with a honey-jalapeno-lime dressing and served with a bit of crumbled feta over a bed of baby arugula.
   

1. Giant Chipotle Baked Beans

   A riff on Laurence Jossel's famous NOPA beans - plump, creamy beans baked in a bright, chunky chipotle tomato sauce, topped with crunchy breadcrumbs, plenty of oozy queso fresco, and an emerald drizzle of cilantro pesto.
   

2. Chickpea Salad Sandwich

   The chickpea salad sandwich filling to make in bulk for easy lunches and snacks all week. A perfect vegetarian or vegan sandwich option.
   

3. Turmeric Chickpeas with Garlic Tahini

   A quick lunch. And a compelling reason to always keep turmeric chickpeas on hand!
   

4. A Really Good Chana Masala

   There are a lot of chana masala recipes out there that are perfectly good, but this is the chana masala you should make tonight - a Technicolor version of chana masala.
   

5. Instant Pot Herbed Chickpea Plov

   If you love robust one-pot rice dishes, and you own an Instant Pot, this recipe is for you. It has rice, and chickpeas, fragrant spices, spinach, herbs, saffron, garlic, and olives.
   

6. Mung Bean Yoga Bowl

   The kind of power bowl that keeps you strong - herb-packed yogurt dolloped over a hearty bowl of mung beans and quinoa, finished with toasted nuts and a simple paprika oil.
   

My Favorite Heirloom Beans to Cook With

I'll update this list over time, but these have been beans I've been reaching for in recent weeks.

• Rebosero:I love doing a version of refried beans with these.
• Royal Corona Beans & Gigante Beans: The big dogs. Perfect for pan-frying into golden, crusted goodness.
• Christmas Lima Bean: silk textured and thumb-sized these can handle being toasted with all manner of strong herbs, spices, and dressings.
• Chickpeas: Everyone loves a chickpea, and they're one of the most versatile beans to cook with - salads, soups, sandwiches - all fair game. Explore all the chickpea recipes.

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