How To Eat Beans For Every Meal

Last month, we wrote about the positive effects of eating beans every day. As you well know, beans are associated with numerous benefits for both human and environmental well-being, from promoting gut health to soil health. But one other advantage of regularly eating beans that may not immediately come to mind is the incredible culinary benefits! Our High Plains Beans come in diverse colors, shapes, sizes, textures, and flavors, making them an ideal part of any meal.

To help inspire you in the kitchen, we wanted to share some ideas of delicious ways to enjoy beans at any time of the day, including some creative dishes you may not originally associate with beans, like smoothies. Trust us, the more you experiment with the different ways to use them – and taste the fantastic results – the more you’ll fall in love with beans!

Beans for Breakfast

What better way to start the day than with beans? Breakfast burritos are great, but what about also
trying some of these scrumptious dishes?

• Beans on toast. A popular breakfast in the United Kingdom, beans on toast is well-liked for a
  reason: it’s delicious and satisfying! You can follow suit and do a tomato-based sauce like in the
  UK. For a rich, earthier taste, use pinto beans, or for a milder taste, Mayocoba beans are perfect.
  Or, you can switch things up and make a simple bean salad to use as a topping for your toast,
  dressing the beans with oil, a tasty vinegar, herbs, and cheese.

• Beans in oatmeal. Along with your other favorite mix-ins, mash up beans to add to your oatmeal
  – it’s a great way to increase protein. Mayocoba beans work very well for this.

• Bean muffins. Check out this recipe for Pinto Pineapple Muffins on Colorado Dry Beans! Colleen,
  the recipe creator, shares that, “The sweetness and crunch of the pineapple, along with the
  creaminess and fiber of the pinto beans, gives you an excuse to eat this muffin at any time of the
  day! With a punch of protein from the beans and eggs, we use this muffin as a “refuel” after the kid’s sports practice. Always keep a dozen in the freezer – you won’t regret having a healthy and delicious muffin in your back pocket.”

• Bean smoothies. If you haven’t tried a bean smoothie yet, now is the time! Simply add a handful
  of cooked beans to your favorite smoothie recipe, or experiment with new bean smoothie
  recipes, like the Mayocoba Bean Smoothie we shared below. Mayocoba beans are extra creamy,
  buttery, and mild and are a natural choice for smoothies. Or, if you’re making a chocolate
  smoothie, black beans work well, too.

Beans For Lunch

The options for bean dishes for lunch are limitless! To name a few…

• Bean burritos. Any of our beans work well in burritos! You can add them whole, partially, or entirely mashed. Making burritos with different types of beans helps mix up your routine –
  maybe a burrito with refried pinto beans one day, then black beans with sweet potato and
  salsa the next.

• Bean soup. Beans work superbly in soups, adding an excellent textural component and soaking up the broth's flavor. Chef Jason created this tasty recipe for Pinto Bean Soup, which is sure to
  satisfy you! Whether your soups contain meat or not, beans help improve nutrition by adding
  fiber, plant protein, and essential vitamins and minerals like folate and potassium.

• Bean salads. Adding beans to salads is a perfect way to make salads more filling. For a quick and
  refreshing salad, simply add whole-cooked beans on top of your favorite type of salad. Our orca
  beans go beautifully in salads thanks to their striking coloration. Or, get creative and add two or
  three different types of beans, like pinto, Mayocoba, and small red beans to prepare a delicious,
  multi-colored feast for your eyes. We love making up large batches of bean salad to refrigerate
  and then enjoy quick and healthy meals over the next few days. Plus, giving bean salads some
  time in the refrigerator allows them to marinate, so the beans better soak up all the flavors of
  the salad dressing. But, note that if you are adding a lot of salad greens to your salad, instead of
  a bean-based salad, the greens may get soggy if they are dressed and then stored in the fridge.
  So, stick to bean-based salads if you’re making up large batches to eat throughout the week. A
  great example of a bean-based salad is the Pinto Bean Salad shown in the video below.

Beans for Dinner

With their incredible versatility, there is no shortage of diverse and tasty ways to eat beans for dinner. Of course, dishes like bean chili and stew are delicious, but there are many other options, too. Here are a few ideas.

• Bean curry. Just like a nice bean stew is hearty and warming, bean curries are flavorsome and satisfying. This Lemony Masala Mayocoba Bean Curry on Colorado Dry Beans is sure to wake up your tastebuds and hit the spot.

• Beans in pasta. Combining beans and pasta is the base of traditional dishes like the Italian pasta soup, pasta e fagioli (also called pasta fazool). Sprinkling beans in along with other ingredients can help make for a flavorful and healthy pasta dish. But there are other ways to include beans in pasta as well! What about blending beans to make a sauce, like in this Mayocoba Beans and Basil Pasta Sauce? Recipe writer Colleen explains the benefits of using beans to make sauces perfectly, “Has your summer herb garden gone bonkers? Mine has! Between the never-ending basil, the copious amounts of cilantro and the overgrown oregano, there’s a lot of herbalicious things happening on my back porch. This isn’t a bad thing. Let me be clear: I’m not complaining, just a bit flustered. How do we capitalize on and capture the freshness before that first freeze? Pasta Sauce! But herbs alone won’t do. That’s why I’ve combined them with Colorado grown Mayocoba beans. These creamy beans pair well with any of your garden herbs to make a dairy free sauce that’s fresh and bright. Spaghetti night is finally getting a facelift!” 

Here at Northern Feed & Bean, sharing delicious High Plains pinto, Mayocoba, orca, black, and small red beans with you and your family brings us joy. We hope this article helped inspire you with some new, exciting, and tasty ways to enjoy beans during any meal of the day. As you can see, the culinary possibilities of beans are endless!