When you think of cooking with beans you probably think of the usuals like, chilis, baked beans, bean soup, and of course refried beans. But what else can you cook with beans or even bake? The good thing is no matter what the recipe calls for, for the most part, you can sub dry beans for canned beans and vice versa. There is a great website out there called the Bean Institute and it has all things beans including several recipes and tips on how to use them. If you are just getting started with using dry beans they have a page that tells you how to prepare and cook your dry beans. Honestly it is a treasure trove of bean knowledge. A few years ago we did a bean class with some great recipes that will open your eyes as to the many ways to use beans even in cooking desserts. Tricia even made a pizza dough using beans and it was so good!!
Some of my favorite things to make with beans that are easy to freeze and have on hand are black bean quesadillas. Just take some whole wheat tortillas, add about a 1/4-1/3 c. black beans either from the can or freshly cooked from dry and then your favorite cheese (I like pepperjack it adds a little kick.) Then fold the tortilla in half and place in a pan or on a griddle and cook them until they are nice and toasted on the outside. You can do this with flour or corn tortillas too, but my favorite are whole wheat there is just something about them when they are toasted that adds a nice flavor to the overall experience. One of my family's favorite variations on this is to cook some bacon cut into little pieces and then add some cut up Swiss chard or spinach and let it wilt then add the beans and let them warm a little. Then do the same as above for adding filling and cheese and toasting.
Another one is a variation on BBQ baked beans. All you need is your favorite BBQ sauce, water, great northern beans (2 cans or about a cooked 7 c. from dry) applewood smoked chicken sausage cut into thin discs, and either spinach or Swiss chard. Cook the sausage in a pot til it just starts to brown, add the chard or spinach til it begins to wilt, then add the beans, and 2/3 c. BBQ sauce, 1/2 c. water and some salt and pepper to taste. Reduce the heat to med-low and let it simmer for about 3 mins. Then enjoy it. We really like eating this with either some corn bread or honey muffins.
One other is a Black Bean and Corn Pizza. So good and you cook it out on your BBQ. You start with whole wheat pizza dough, throw this out on your BBQ until it puffs and is light brown on the bottom. Remove it from the heat and flip it over so that you are adding your toppings on the side that was just browned. For the sauce use your favorite BBQ sauce, then for toppings use black beans (1 can or 3 1/2 cups cooked dry beans), 1 cup fresh corn (about 2 ears worth or you can use frozen corn and just throw it on frozen), 1 tomato diced, 1 medium green pepper and about a cup of mozzarella cheese. You can easily add any other toppings you may want like onions or chives, green chili peppers, etc. Then throw your pizza back out on the BBQ and grill until the cheese is melted and the other side is browned(about 5 min). It's a super easy and delicious way to enjoy home cooked pizza without heating up your house in the summer. You could also do either a taco or nacho style pizza and replace the black beans with pinto beans the BBQ sauce with taco or enchilada sauce and then add your favorite taco or nacho toppings, of course if you want to add lettuce I would wait until after it's done baking to add it. There are many variations of this, so go crazy and think up your own ways.
One last note, did you know that you could also use beans as a substitute for butter and oil in baking? I haven't tried it yet but will definitely get on it, especially after reading this post and seeing the eye catching and mouth watering results. She used a box cake mix but I would think you can definitely achieve the same results from a made from scratch cake. Good luck and have fun cooking and baking with beans.
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