I Fell in Love with Dried Beans So Much I Joined a Bean Club
By Stacey Ballis December 28, 2021
Canned beans are a great time-saver, but it can be difficult sometimes to get the right texture for dishes or to fully eliminate that tinny flavor. But once I started cooking with dried beans myself, I was hooked. Versatile, affordable, healthy, and delicious, what more could someone ask for?
Commercial beans can often be old, which you might have experienced if you have ever waited for hours for beans to soften, only to get tough skins and mealy interiors. And once you start to explore the wondrous variety to be had in beans, you will be shocked at how versatile they are.
Working with heirloom beans has inspired me to cook beans much more regularly than I used to, which is both delicious and good for my health, a hard-to-beat combination.
Some Bean Cookbooks/Recipes/Videos
- Heirloom Beans: Great Recipes for Dips and Spreads, Soups and Stews, Salads and Salsas, and Much More from Rancho Gordo by Steve Sando and Vanessa Barrington
- Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine by Bryant Terry
- Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes [A Cookbook] by Joe Yonan
- Bean By Bean: A Cookbook: More than 175 Recipes for Fresh Beans, Dried Beans, Cool Beans, Hot Beans, Savory Beans, Even Sweet Beans! by Crescent Dragonwagon
- Southern Bean Cookbook: 240 Recipes for Soups, Casseroles, Meals, Salads & Side Dishes! (Southern Cooking Recipes) Part of: Southern Cooking Recipes | by S. L. Watson
- The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes by Fabiola Demps Gaines and Roniece Weaver
- Sweet Potato Soul: 100 Easy Vegan Recipes for the Southern Flavors of Smoke, Sugar, Spice, and Soul : A Cookbook by Jenne Claiborne
red beans and rice (use small red beans, not kidney beans)