How To Cook Beans By Type

Every witch in every storybook town covets or collects beans for good reason. Year-round, these magical pantry staples can be put to use in everything from soups and salads to chilis, burritos or smoothies. Knowing what to make with the beans in your possession can be tricky. So, allow us to introduce you to four common sorts and recommend 20 easy recipes you can make at home with your stock of special beans. 

With a sweet taste, soft texture and matte color, black beans are medium-sized and take an hour or 90 minutes to cook. They can be pureed and coated over tortas, blended into berry smoothies or rinsed, drained and mixed into chilis, burrito bowls, soups and salsas.

Make your favorite Mexican dishes at home, starting with these seven-ingredient black bean enchiladas. Pack tomato-doused tortillas with drained and rinsed black beans and corn before baking and coating in melty cheese. 

For the Black Bean Enchiladas recipe, click here.

Frequent collaborators black beans and corn partner up with another sort of bean for this easy chicken recipe: the Great Northern bean. Medium-sized, oval and with a thin white skin, Great Northern beans provide a delicate flavor and are commonly used in French and Mediterranean cooking. 

For the Chicken Chili With Black Beans and Corn recipe, click here.

Using this recipe, black beans, white rice and jerk chicken all cook in one pot and are all ready in under an hour. The required 1.5 cups of orange juice adds an extra dose of Caribbean citrus. 

For the One Pot Caribbean Jerk Chicken & Rice recipe, click here.

Even vegans can enjoy some of our best burger recipes. This black bean patty is paired with a relish made of onion, jalapenos, barbecue sauce and, you guessed it, corn. 

For the MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger with Roasted Corn Relish recipe, click here.

Battle with the best burritos in America using this recipe fit with not one but three heart-healthy heavyweights: avocados, black beans and spinach.

For the Avocado Black Bean Burrito with Spicy Vegan Chipotle Dressing recipe, click here

Kidney-shaped beans are known for their firm texture and red outer color. Both dark red and light red kidney beans hold up well in soups and other dishes with long cook times like sports stadium-ready chilis. On their own, kidney beans take between 90 and 120 minutes to cook. 

File this kidney bean recipe under college-ready Crock-Pot dinners. For four hours, browned lean ground beef, diced tomatoes, one can tomato sauce and two cans of drained and rinsed kidney beans all cook on high heat. Then, it's chili time. 

For the Slow Cooker Chili recipe, click here.

For a delicious, hearty dinner, look no further than this Italian style soup. The final product: a chicken broth seasoned with oregano, rosemary and thyme where red kidney beans dance alongside chopped turkey sausage, diced tomatoes and bowtie pasta. 

For the Italian Style Soup with Turkey Sausage, recipe click here.

Here, kidney beans team up with black and Great Northern beans for a chili trifecta. Add minced garlic, diced onion, cumin, tomatoes, peppers and, yes, corn for a fully loaded cheap and easy meatless dinner. 

For the Three Bean Chili recipe, click here.

Let this red beans and rice recipe be the first of many Creole and Cajun dishes you try recreating at home. Serve it up alongside a batch of freshly baked cornbread. 

For the Claw Daddy's Red Beans and Rice recipe, click here.

Put leftover food to use with this easy chili pizza recipe. Spoon extra chili onto premade pizza crust, sprinkle with mozzarella and bake until the cheese reaches peak meltitude.  

For the Easy Chili Pizza recipe, click here.

Of all the beans, pinto beans are the most widely produced bean in the U.S., according to the Bean Institute. Raw pinto beans have a signature speckled beige and brown look that disappears when cooked for 90 to 120 minutes. Mexican-style refried beans are made from pinto beans, as are other dishes from dips to pastas.

First, layer Mexican-style refried pinto beans over a tortilla. Then, top with your choice of salsa and cheese before popping the whole homemade pizza pie in the oven set to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. 

For the Mexican Bean Pizza recipe, click here.

Great for serving up alongside warm-weather grill recipes, these slow-cooked baked beans are cooked with garlic powder, cinnamon, brown sugar and molasses, not to mention four slices of bacon. 

For the Slow Cooker Baked Beans with Bacon recipe, click here.

Pinto beans can be easily swapped with another sort of bean, the cannellini bean,  when cooking this Mediterranean risotto. A sort of white bean, cannellini beans are often also called white kidney beans. 

For the Bean and Shrimp Risotto recipe, click here.

Add a half cup of soft-cooked pinto beans to your next batch of guacamole for a bright chip dip made for sunny days.  

For the Guacamole with Pinto Beans recipe, click here.

For a taste of Texas, cook up this Southwestern pork and bean soup made with boneless pork chops, chicken broth, chopped tomatoes, onion, chili powder and your choice of pinto beans or small and pale pink beans. 

For the Southwestern Pork and Bean Soup recipe, click here.

There are multiple sorts of white beans. First, there are Great Northern beans — the sort we have already seen mixed in with black and kidney beans in chili. Then, we have cannellini beans or white kidney beans and, lastly, navy beans. Not at all blue, navy beans were famously included in the U.S. Naval diet during the 19th century. They are small with a mild, delicate flavor and cook for 90 to 120 minutes, according to the Bean Institute.

All it takes is less than 25 minutes to prep and cook these light and impressive appetizers. Ripe tomatoes are good for a blood-pressure conscious diet and the coarsely chopped cannellini beans add a signature Mediterranean flare. 

For the Mediterranean White Bean Bruschetta recipe, click here.

Fiber-friendly cannellini beans cook alongside brain-boosting avocado, lime and cilantro in this pork-based chili. 

For the Pork and White Bean Chili recipe, click here.

Beans. Beets. Bunches of pita. That's basically all this easy game-day recipe calls for, plus the added spices that make this bright magenta dip taste as good as it looks. 

For the Roasted Beet and White Bean Dip recipe, click here.

Take your pick of cannellini, Great Northern or navy bean for this simple salad. Toss in additional surprising fruits like yellow peppers, tomatoes, red peppers and minced onion and top off with a dressing made of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard and a tablespoon or two of sugar. 

For the Simple White Bean Salad recipe, click here.

Blend low-fat buttermilk, your choice of white beans, a frozen ripe banana, a couple teaspoons of honey and a dash of nutmeg for a healthy smoothie that tastes as good as it looks.

For the Buttermilk Banana Bean Smoothie recipe, click here. 

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