30 Canned Beans Recipes We Love (2024)

FAQs

How to fancy up canned beans? ›

Add the garlic, oregano, chili powder, and cumin and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add in the drained beans, bay leaves, and broth or water. Cook for 5-10 minutes, or until the beans are warmed through, then remove the bay leaves.

One of the primary reasons for draining and rinsing canned beans, or any canned food, is to remove some of the excess salt.

Nutrition experts talk about the benefits of this oft-overlooked pantry staple. Eating a few servings of beans a day can help you reach your recommended daily fiber intake of 21 to 25 grams for women and 30 to 38 grams for men.

Those aromatics in the pot will revolutionize the beans' final flavor. The aromatics I tend to use are onions, carrots, garlic, and celery, and then heartier, woodsy herbs, like rosemary, sage, and thyme, which marry beautifully with the earthy-sweet flavor of beans.

If you're a relatively healthy person though, enjoying canned beans without draining or rinsing them first is fine. That's because our bodies require sodium to function. It's only when we go above and beyond what we need that it becomes a problem.

Many people wonder if they need to drain and rinse canned beans, and the answer is, “it depends.” It's fine to add the bean liquid to many recipes, but if you want to reduce the amount of sodium, it's best to drain and rinse canned beans.

Liquid from canned or cooked dried beans

You probably never knew it had a name, but that thick liquid in cans of beans and legumes like chickpeas is called aquafaba, a term coined by vegan baker Goose Wohlt. It can also be produced by home-cooking dried beans in water until it thickens.

Research shows that consuming a cup of legumes every day is effective in reducing blood sugar levels (7). Helps fight cancer. Beans contain several phenolic compounds that have potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Chickpeas

Whether you call them chickpeas or garbanzo beans, these nutritional powerhouses “provide 71% of the daily value for folate, a B-vitamin that is essential for DNA synthesis, red blood cell formation, healthy cell growth, and is especially critical during pregnancy to reduce birth defects,” Parlitsis says.

What is the bean only diet? ›

Consuming a predominantly bean diet has many benefits. Nutritionally, they are packed with macronutrients like protein and micronutrients like iron, potassium and magnesium. You can even lose weight eating beans and rice if weight loss is your goal.

A 2-pound bag of dry pinto beans is about 24 servings (½ cup) after cooking.

If you don't have dried beans, you can substitute canned. For every pound of dried beans called for... ...you'll need 58 ounces of canned beans (3 or 4 cans, depending on size).

Cost: If you want to save money, cook with dry beans.

Dry beans cost less per serving than canned beans. For example, a one pound bag of dry pinto beans costs, on average, $1.79 and will make 12-½ cup servings of cooked beans whereas a 15 oz.

Fry some onion until browned a bit, add bell pepper(or a hotter kind) and fry til softened, add some garlic, cumin, chili powder and black pepper. Add your beans and heat them through. Then season, beans especially need salt to go from terrible to pretty good/great.

Pour the beans directly into the pot and season for how you plan to use them. Allow it to simmer, stirring occasionally. Continue to stir and heat beans until they reach the desired temperature and consistency, about 5-10 minutes.