Category:Beans

Varieties of beans

Many well-known bean varieties belong to this species, and none of the lists below are in any way exhaustive. Both bush and running (pole) varieties exist. The colours and shapes of pods and seeds vary tremendously. Let us know if we have missed any important types of beans.

Further information

Click the image to for an enlarged version or the text to take you to our detailed Wiki article on the specific bean.

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  Alubia de La Bãneza-León

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  Azuki (red) beans

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  Baked beans

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  Black beans

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  Black urad beans

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  Black eyed peas

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  Broad beans

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  Butter beans

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  Chickpeas

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  Faba beans

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  Coco de Paimpol (Paimpol haricot bean)

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  Horse gram

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  Judías de El Barco de Ávila

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  Lentils and pulses

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  Lima beans

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  Green mung beans

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  Peteh or stink beans

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  Pinto or mottled beans

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  Red bean paste

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  Red kidney beans

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  Red mung bean

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  Rice beans

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  Shell beans

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  Snap, string or runner beans

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  Soyabeans

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  White or cannellini beans

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  White urad beans

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  Yellow or Peruano beans

Recipes using beans

• We have a large selection of bean recipes here.

Quantities: dried beans vs cooked beans vs canned beans

A rough guide for quantities of dried beans, compared with cooked or canned beans would be:

• 1 pound dried beans = 2 cups dried = 4 to 5 cups of cooked beans
• 1 large (15 oz) can of beans is roughly equivalent to 2 cups of cooked beans

Slow cooking beans

• Cooking beans in a slow cooker

How to cook beans or pulses in a pressure cooker

Use this basic guide if you do not have a specific recipe

• Pick through the beans and discard any discoloured beans or loose skins
• Soak in cold water for a minimum of the time shown, soaking overnight is usually the best way to achieve this
• Change soaking water a few times if possible
• Never cook the beans in the water they were soaked in
• Rinse the beans well at the end of the soaking period
• Ensure the pressure cooker is at least a quarter full
• Never fill the pressure cooker more than half full
• Always cover the beans with at least 5 cm (2") water
• Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the water - this reduces foaming
• Allow the pressure cooker to get to the required pressure and then begin timing
• Use the specified pressure release method - this is the natural method in the case of dried beans or pulses
• A bean is usually perfectly cooked when it can be easily squashed between your forefinger and thumb
• If the beans are not sufficiently cooked, return to pressure, cook for another 3 minutes and allow the pressure to reduce using the natural method.
  Re-check that the beans are cooked to your liking.

Chef's tip - A selection for the freezer

To ensure that you always have access to a nice variety of beans for recipes, every now and then, open four or five cans of different beans and pulses, add a cup of frozen peas to them and mix well, then freeze them in small plastic coffee cups for later use.

How much does one cup of beans weigh?

Estimated US cup to weight equivalents:

Conversion notes:
Every ingredient has a cups to ounces or grams conversion table. Search for the ingredient, cup to weight conversions are at the end of each ingredient page.

We also have a generic conversion table and a portions per person lookup.