We’re all familiar with beans for foods like chili, beans and rice, or bean soup. However, beans can be used in some surprising applications, and in some surprisingly time-saving ways.
For those who would prefer to cook their own beans (where cooked are called for), rather than buying canned, a pressure cooker is a faster option than the traditional stovetop method. This site has time charts for both electric and stovetop pressure cookers.
Baking with Beans
Beans aren’t the first thing most of us think of when we think about baking, but they have a lot of the same traits as flour. Dried beans can be ground into flour and used for baking, but that isn’t necessary across the board. A number of recipes use cooked, puréed beans in baked goods. Like these:
- black bean chocolate cake
- black bean brownies (egg-free)
- another black bean brownie (maple & date sweetened)
- vanilla bean cake (made with white beans)
- white bean coffee cake
If you’d like to try your hand at converting a recipe to use beans, a good starting point is to use 1 cup of beans to replace 1 cup of flour + 2 tablespoons of fat. (You’ll probably need to slightly reduce the liquid, as well.)
Other Bean Desserts
Most bean-based desserts are baked goods, but there are some exceptions. Here are a couple dessert recipes made with cooked beans that remain in their “creamy” state:
Aquafaba
Aquafaba is, as far as anyone knows, a relatively recent discovery. (Not that it exists, but what it can do.) Loosely translated, aquafaba means “bean water,” and it refers to the liquid from cooking beans.
Garbanzo aquafaba is used most often, because it has a very neutral flavor, but most, if not all, bean liquids have the same basic properties. They behave very much like egg whites, and can be used to substitute for eggs in a variety of recipes. Some people have found that aquafaba also shares some properties with egg yolks and have successfully substituted it in applications like mayonnaise.
If your aquafaba is very thin/runny, you can reduce it on the stove a bit for greater success when working with it. (I would guess that liquid left from cooking beans at home tends to be thinner than canned “bean juice.”) It should be about the same consistency as egg white. For more information, and links to some helpful and creative Facebook groups, check out the Aquafaba website.
A lot of people use aquafaba because it’s vegan, but it can also be helpful for those with egg allergies, as an inexpensive alternative to eggs, as a way to minimize food waste, or even just as a way to introduce some variety.
There are literally hundreds or thousands of ways aquafaba can be used, but here are a few recipes where the aquafaba plays a starring role:
- aquafaba meringues
- eggless royal icing – Even as an egg eater, I’ve never been particularly comfortable with the raw egg whites in royal icing. That makes this a fantastic option!
- sprinkles — Yvonne of Sweet Serenity Bakery uses the royal icing recipe above not only for “direct” decorating, but also for making sprinkles! She graciously agreed to let me share some of her photos. Aren’t these beautiful? They are colored with food coloring, then piped out. (The long ones are piped into rows, then cut up with a pastry cutter.) She does gorgeous work at her nut-free, egg-free bakery, so if you happen to be near Bristow, VA, check the Sweet Serenity Bakery out!
![Aquafaba sprinkles made by Yvonne of Sweet Serenity Bakery]()
Aquafaba-based sprinkles made by Yvonne at Sweet Serenity Bakery - egg-free mayonnaise — Okay, so this one doesn’t feature the aquafaba as quite such a key player, but it could be a game-changer for those with egg allergies, so I’m including it anyway. It’s adapted from a recipe on the PETA website, but I can’t bring myself to link to PETA; sorry.
- Vegan Mayo (from PETA):
- ¼ cup aquafaba (liquid from canned beans)
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. honey
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 2 tsp. dry mustard (This is a spice.)
- ¾ cup liquid oil
- Add everything except the oil to a food processor or blender. Turn the machine on and, with it running, VERY slowly add the oil. (VERY slowly. We're talking drop by drop, or in such a narrow stream it's almost by the drop.)
- Within a few minutes, the mixture should emulsify.
- Mayo can be refrigerated for up to a week.
Some people have had success emulsifying mayonnaise by blending it with an immersion blender. I don't have one, so I can't vouch for that.
Aquafabulous!: 100+ Egg-Free Vegan Recipes Using AquafabaGet ItAquafaba: Egg Free Revolution: Discover The Magic Of Bean WaterGet ItAquafaba: Sweet and Savory Vegan Recipes Made Egg-FreeGet ItCountry BeansGet ItBean By Bean: A Cookbook: More than 175 RecipesGet ItSpilling the Beans: Cooking and Baking with Beans and Grains EverydayGet It
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Bean Flours
Bean flours are raw, unlike aquafaba and bean purées, so they should be used in things that will be cooked. This may be baked goods, but not necessarily. Grinding beans into flour can create a “shortcut” to “refried” beans (which won’t technically be re-fried) and sauces, because the flours cook much faster than whole, dried beans.
- “cream of” soups made with bean flour OR cooked beans
- garbanzo bean gravy
- bean flour cream soup & “refried” beans
According to Flyte Family Farm, here are a few tips for making “refried beans” from bean flour:
- If you’re grinding your own, 1 cup whole beans = about 1-1/8 cups bean flour
- For stiff refried beans, similar to the canned variety, use 1 c. water to 1/3 c. bean flour for 1 c. instant mashed beans. Cook and stir for 1 minute until the mixture thickens, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 6 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
- For fluffy refried beans, good on tortillas or in dips, use 2 c. water to 3/4 c. bean flour for 2-1/2 c. mashed beans. Cook the same way as for stiff beans.
Do you have any other favorite, out-of-the-box ways to use beans?
