The World of Beans

By Wendy Gordon

The beans I had when growing up were unexciting limp things that came out of a can or frozen box. Occasionally my mother would dress them up with boil-in-the bag frozen sauce or toasted almonds. But like so many other foods that have been reduced to nonentities by the modern supermarket, beans come in an amazing variety of shapes, colors, and flavors. The best way to experience these is to patronize farmer's markets or grow them yourself. However you obtain your beans, they are a great addition to your diet any season of the year.

Beans originated in Mesoamerica and the Andes Mountains and spread throughout the world, becoming a vital constituent of many cuisines. Combined with rice they make a complete protein. Beans fix nitrogen in the soil, facilitating growth and enriching the soil for nitrogen-hungry crops like squash and corn. We can split beans into three categories: green, shell, and dry. Shell beans will generally turn into dry beans if left on the vine long enough, and a few varieties of beans, like Dragon Tongue, can be picked in all three manifestations.

Green beans reach peak season in July and August. Much lower in calories, carbohydrates, and protein than the heartier dry or shelling beans, they are an excellent source of dietary fiber and vitamins A and C. They come in two varieties, bush and pole. Bush beans are small, self-contained plants that produce small, delicately flavored cylindrical beans. They taste great raw, lightly steamed or sautéed, grilled or roasted with a little olive oil, or added to soups. Pole beans, so named because they need to be trellised, are longer and flatter. They're tough raw, but once cooked release a richer, more nuanced flavor than the snap bean. Pole beans can grow upward and adjust well to small garden spaces or even pots. They have a longer harvest and heavier yield than bush beans. Runner beans straddle the two varieties, not growing as tall as a pole bean, but sending out long, extravagantly colored runners. They produce a decent amount of flat, pole-style beans, but are worth growing just for their looks.

Shelling beans are harvested while still moist, giving them a shorter cooking time and a milder, fresher flavor than dry beans. They are much higher in carbohydrates and protein than green beans, and are excellent sources of iron, potassium, selenium, molybdenum, thiamin, vitamin B6 and folate. Perhaps because of their short shelf life, shelling beans are hard to find in conventional supermarkets. Many people are familiar with the flageolet, a French shell bean used in cassoulet, or the broad beans (favas) popular in Mediterranean cooking. Shell beans come in over thirty varieties. I've grown red, purple, and green streaked ones, as well as a "yin-yang" bean that grew in the appropriate black and white design. Most of them turn white when cooked, but it's worth growing different varieties just to see the beautiful array when raw. Shell beans should be cooked until tender; discarding the cooking water and then rinsing the beans will get rid of most of the hard-to-digest complex sugars that cause flatulence. They taste good as a crostini topping, as an addition to a main dish salad, or in soups. They do not freeze well, so enjoy them during their short season. Sprawling shell bean bushes take up a fair amount of garden space but are hard to find in the market, so they are worth growing if you can make the room.

Dry beans look like shell beans with withered pods and dry, hard beans. Their nutrient profile is comparable to that of a shell bean. Dry beans will last indefinitely in a cool dry place, though flavor and nutrient content degrades with time. Dry beans are popular constituents of many cuisines. Pinto beans are especially popular in Mexico and the Southwestern US, while black beans are used throughout Latin America. The white bean, or Great Northern, is a staple in Great Britain and the US (think navy bean soup) while cannellinis, another white bean, are an Italian staple. Red Beans are used in cuisines as diverse as Indian, Chinese, Spanish, and Creole.

Dry beans should always be soaked before cooking to eliminate those troublesome sugars and shorten cooking time. You can soak them overnight, or boil for two minutes and let soak for four hours. Be sure to discard the soaking water. Most beans will tenderize within a couple hours. Epazote (a Mexican herb) or Kombu (a type of kelp popular in Japanese cooking) improve bean's digestibility. Salt, sugar or acidic foods like tomatoes harden the beans so they shouldn't be added until the beans are already tender. Beans are wonderful in soups, make an excellent addition to many casseroles, and combine especially well with greens.

It doesn't make much sense to grow beans in a kitchen garden as they take up tons of space and are readily available and inexpensive at the store. There's no significant nutritional difference between dry and canned beans, though the canned ones are higher in sodium and cost more. Nevertheless, they make an excellent time saver.

Wendy Gordon is a writer and restaurant reviewer who lives in Portland, Oregon. She has a Masters Degree in Clinical Nutrition from the University of Chicago.