14 Not-So-Basic Bean Recipes

By Rosa L. • Jul 23, 2024

If you like beans... then these 14 Bean Recipes are for you! Fast, cost-effective, fueling, and delicious, beans are a great way to pack an extra punch of protein and nutrients in your meal. These bean recipes are anything but basic. Try out a new dip, salad, bake, or sandwich today!

1. Picnic Bean Salad

Is it even a picnic without a Picnic Bean Salad? A question for philosophers, but we'd rather have it served up on the spread-out blanket than not! Picnic Bean Salad is hearty, herbaceous, crisp, and refreshing, with the creamy beans elevating and balancing each other. The dressing is tangy and sweet, rounding out the bean flavor in the best way! Picnic Bean Salad is a real picnic!

2. Anything-But-Boring Bean Dip

This Anything-But-Boring Dip really lives up to its name! With a scrumptious surprise around every corner, this dip is a savory concoction of textures and flavors. Packed with hearty black beans, tangy sour cream, spicy jalapeño, and melty queso fresco, this dip's creamy deliciousness is absolutely irresistible. Topped with fresh and bright tomatoes, aromatic herbs, and even more cheese, you'll be jumping for joy as you reach for the tortilla chips! Excitement never tasted as good as this Anything-But-Boring Bean Dip!

3. Granny's Rum Baked Beans

From the gal who likes to play Rummy with her card-playing girls as much as she likes to drink rum with her vacay-going girls, it wasn't a huge surprise to us when our beloved grandmother showed up to our family potluck with what she called Granny's Rum Baked Beans. Loaded up with five kinds of beans, the sweet and tangy sauce it's soaked in is infused with... you guessed it! Rum! She claims it adds a blast of fun and lots of flavor, just like her. Goodness gracious, she is something else. So, when you're looking for some fun and flavor, Granny's Rum Baked Beans have you covered!

4. 3 Bean Salad

A classic you can't wait to dig your spoon into! 3 Bean Salad is a hearty addition to a fulfilling feast. Rich kidney beans, creamy white beans, and starchy green beans create a terrific trio of a base. They're completely coated in a sweet, acidic, dilly dressing and mixed with crunchy onions and garden-fresh parsley. Served at room temperature or chilled, 3 Bean Salad is a tasty, time-saving trilogy!

5. Southern Caviar Bean Dip

Southern Caviar Bean Dip is an easy and versatile recipe that features all the colors of the rainbow! Serve this tasty snack as a dip, salad, or side dish. This recipe is full of delicious flavors and textures from black beans, fresh tomatoes, corn kernels, crunchy diced onions, bell pepper, and more! Southern Caviar Bean Dip is a mixture of tastiness, and it is topped perfectly with homemade dressing. Get your chips, crackers, and/or spoons ready!

6. Crack Lima Beans

We're here to "spill the beans…" Crack Lima Beans, that is. They may just be the best side your tastebuds have ever experienced! What makes you keep coming back for more, you might wonder? It's the creaminess of the lima beans, for sure. And also the savory, zesty garlic sauce they're simmered in that brings the flavor, the tenderness, and the scrumptiousness—who doesn't want all of that? You can trust us, Crack Lima Beans will keep you coming back for more!

7. Tuscan Bean Soup

Need a break from meat-heavy dishes, yet craving something steaming, satisfying, and savory? Tuscan Bean Soup is the hearty spoon-dipping solution for your hunger! It's loaded with smooth white cannellini beans and plenty of tender veggies to fill you right up. If that doesn't get you all the way full, don't you worry! There's plenty of toasted, crusty, cheesy bread around to make sure you are satisfied, which also provides the ability to soak up every last drop of this delicious soup. Sounds like a win-win, huh? Good riddance, meat-loaded soups, we're full and happy sipping on some Tuscan Bean Soup!

8. Pico de Gallo Black Bean Soup

Few sauces are as refreshing as a bowl of vibrant pico de gallo. Pico de Gallo Black Bean Soup not only knows it—it embraces it! This smooth and simple yet delightfully delicious soup mixes the brightness and freshness of salsa with the creaminess and heartiness of black beans. The zest of the pico de gallo even ensures you don't need that much seasoning to make the most of this deeply savory soup. Pico de Gallo Black Bean Soup is quick, easy, and tasty. That's about all you need to know to fall in love with it!

9. Corn Bean Salad

Corn Bean Salad feels as inviting and comforting as a summer's day, regardless of the season! The sprinkling of tender, sweet, golden corn mixed with tender, crisp, garden-fresh green beans would make anyone beam with happiness. The creamy, savory, and bright dressing with a hint of parmesan just adds the cherry on top (so to speak, this salad doesn't call for actual cherries.). Having to wait the couple of hours it takes to make Corn Bean Salad is absolutely worth it, which your tastebuds will confirm in an instant!

10. Backyard Three Bean Bake

If you're having a summer cookout, but don't have a bean dish, are you even allowed to call it a cookout? A question for philosophers perhaps, but we're not going to test it; we're going to put out the best bean dish possible! That's the Backyard Three Bean Bake, if you were wondering; a beefy, succulent, savory mix of three different kinds of creamy, hearty beans that are baked to smoky sweetness with brown sugar and molasses. Mmmm, there's "bean" no side dish we've found that can match this Backyard Three Bean Bake!

11. Ethiopian Dinner Bowl

The Ethiopian Dinner Bowl is some of the heartiest and most flavorful vegetarian cuisine around! The protein-powered lentils are cooked tender and loaded with plenty of zesty, spicy, and fragrant flavors. A touch of sunny lemon and deeply sweet tomato paste helps bring out the best in these once-humble beans! Speedy and breezy, this Ethiopian Dinner Bowl will become a classic in your kitchen in no time!

12. The BBT

The BBT gets its naming style from the BLT sandwich: It's a bean, bacon, and tomato bake bouncing with bountiful flavors! The lima beans are creamy and hearty, the tomato bright and juicy, and the bacon salty, meaty, and, well, bacon-y! Notes of sweetness and fragrant garlic add new dimensions to the savory mix, making it endlessly delicious and just the thing to make again and again. Packed with protein, the BBT is home-cooking at its most endearingly nurturing!

13. Saucy Black Bean Burgers

Vegetarian burgers often don't have the best reputation. But would you just take a minute to look at the picture of these Saucy Black Bean Burgers?! Without the title you wouldn't even know there wasn't actual beef in there! And just wait until you taste one. They're loaded with savory flavors, melty Muenster cheese, and all the satisfyingly delicious toppings you're accustomed to. So, don't be scared! Saucy Black Bean Burgers are a new heart-healthier way to indulge in the classic handheld!

14. Power Salad

Preparation sure does make life easier! While we can't prepare for everything we might encounter in our day, we can make lunch much easier with this Power Salad. Whether you are making a salad for just one or even 21, the tender, flavorful chicken packed with delicious great northern beans, garbanzo beans, quinoa, red onions, feta, juicy tomatoes, and crunchy greens tossed with creamy hummus and a sassy balsamic vinaigrette can be the answer to your next salad craving. This Power Salad is a systematically fresh bite of energy that will put that spark back into your lunch time.