Yes, our editors love to cook, but sometimes we need to get dinner on the table ASAP. In these moments, we look to kitchen helpers, humble ingredients that can quickly form the base of full-on delicious meals. Each month, we’ll be giving you fuss-free recipe ideas to call upon any day of the week. This month, it’s all about beans.
Budget-friendly, protein-packed, and often requiring not more than a dump-and-stir, canned beans are the perfect ingredient for making something out of nothing. From trendy bean salads to chickpeas cooked piccata-style, here are all the ways our editors make a satisfying bean recipe out of a humble can and a few other odds and ends.
Smoky beans and rice
Black beans and rice. No more, no less. Okay, a little more. I heated some butter in a skillet, and added in chopped garlic, cumin, tomato powder, and cayenne pepper before plopping in smoky canned chipotle peppers and my trusty beans. Once the beans cooked down, I served them over a steaming bed of cilantro confettied rice with a few toppings—Trader Joe’s Sweet Ripe Plantains, creamy avocado, and a fiery river of Cholula. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking
Bean salad forever
The ubiquitous bean salad. Trendy or not, I make one almost every week. Sometimes I start with a can of cannellini beans, add in some chopped celery and carrots, parsley, and farro, and toss it all together with a vaguely Italian vinaigrette. Other weeks it’s black beans plus thawed frozen charred corn, bell peppers, tomatoes, and jalapeños with a spicy dressing (I add in avocados when I eat it, but they don’t keep well, so they’re an à la minute addition.) Lately, it’s been chickpeas, lentils, and radishes with a preserved lemon sauce. But no matter what I’ve mixed up, it’s easy to toss a few scoops on crisp lettuce, eat directly from the bowl with salty tortilla chips or crunchy baked pita; or for a slightly more grown-up meal, serve it alongside seared tofu or grilled fish. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor
Weekly quesadillas
For over a decade, I’ve had these black bean quesadillas in steady rotation. What started as a Meatless Monday option quickly filled in to pinch hit any day of the week. Using canned beans (something I always have in my pantry) means it comes together in a snap. When corn is in season, I might grab a few fresh cobs, but the frozen stuff works year-round too. This is great for cleaning out a few fridge bits and bobs: mushrooms, jalapeños, chickpeas, whatever seems good can go right into the mix. Just a few minutes in a hot pan sandwiched between a tortilla, and you have a perfectly filling snack or quick meal. —Ryan Harrington, research director
Creamy big beans, no pressure cooker required
Butter beans are an unsung hero in my pantry. Instead of searching for Greek white runner beans to make tomato-stewed gigante beans, canned butter beans deliver the same creaminess and large scale (and bonus, no need for a pressure cooker). In a skillet or in the oven, the beans simmer in a tangy tomato sauce doused in rich olive oil, with oregano, garlic, and red pepper flakes shining through. Topped with crumbled feta and fresh parsley, it’s tangy, bright, and hearty. The dish can be served with bread, but for me, all I need are the beans. —Jaia Clingham-David, research fellow
British-style baked beans on toast
Sorry to all other canned beans, but baked beans are the best. I’m talking about British-style baked beans, where little white beans are crowded in a tomato-y sauce that gently burps its way out of the can. Which other canned beans are this ready-to-eat, this convenient? (Okay fine, I suppose refried beans check the boxes, but let’s pretend they don’t exist for the sake of this storyline.) A half cup of baked beans plus a slice of seeded toast is my ideal weekday breakfast, delivering handsomely on the fiber front. I reheat the beans in a skillet with a knob of butter until the liquid tightens up. Then I hit the whole lot with a few twists of the pepper mill, a pinch of ground turmeric, and a good shower of finely chopped cilantro. The cilantro is key because its chlorophyllic sharpness slaps the stupor out of the starchy beans. On the rare occasion I plan ahead, I’ll make a homemade version of this beloved dish. —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor
Chickpeas cooked like chicken piccata
I love chicken piccata, but I do not love realizing I have no chicken in the fridge when the hankering strikes. What I do, however, always have, are canned chickpeas. And so I make chickpeas cooked like chicken piccata (chickpeccata?). It’s beautifully simple: Crisp chickpeas in an oil-slicked skillet, revel in how much less spatter there is than when shallow-frying a cutlet, turn out onto a serving dish; in the same pan, make a chunky sauce with wine, garlic, lemon, and capers, mounted with a little cold butter. Pour the mess over the beans and dinner is done. I like mopping up the sauce with warm bread. (And yes, I have made this successfully with many other varieties of canned white beans, for those who are also avoiding going to the store.) —Rebecca Firkser, contributing editor
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