The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking With All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen Hardcover – 10 September 2024

I like to vary the beans I cook and learn more ways to make delicious meals with them. I order most of my beans from Rancho Gordo because they carry all of them and the quality is excellent. I have earmarked quite a few recipes to make in the near future.

I’m a die-hard “I don’t use recipes” snob and bean know-it-all: I’ve been cooking dried beans for decades, eat beans that I’ve cooked from dried at least once a day, and have at least 6 other bean books in my cookbook library (including 3 by Rancho Gordo), but, somehow, there are 9 Post-It notes on my brand-new book highlighting inspirations that I can’t wait to try. The book is really magnificent: it’s not only gorgeous, but comprehensive. It makes a perfect self-gift or a gift for anyone who says “I’d like to learn how to cook dried beans from scratch.” DO read the introduction, the chapter intros, and the recipe headers: we all benefit by absorbing the author’s decades of knowledge and philosophy about all things bean. Many of the recipes are vegetarian because Mr. Sando makes his preference for pristine beans clear. Moreover, he indicates whether ingredients (e.g. anchovies, lard, chicken broth) are optional and frequently suggests vegetarian alternatives. For the most part, the ingredients are accessible or amazonable. An ingredient list may look long, but it’s mostly suggested herbs and spices. Only a couple are a bit fancy: saffron and preserved lemons. The author is a purist when it comes to beans, but not for ingredients that may be important time-savers for home cooks: for example, he calls for frozen spinach. Or presumably store-bought preserved lemons. The author shouts out other famous bean recipes, such as Smitten Kitchen’s famous “Pizza Beans.” And mentions some brand names that we all want to see: for example, Anson Mills’ heirloom grains. My only query is why there are no charts with suggested cooking times for specific types of beans, or, for that matter, any suggested cooking times for beans. Different types of beans vary widely in their cooking times, so this is a puzzle to me. The book showcases 52 varieties of heirloom beans in 18 pages devoted to their presentation, with plenty of white space for each bean, but no “Suggested stovetop cooking time X minutes.” Yet the recipes call for “cooked” beans. I suggest some browsing on the Rancho Gordo website to help the uninitiated figure out whether they’ll be able to make it to their kid’s soccer game that afternoon. However, the book is otherwise magnificent: it presents the classics (“Senate Bean Soup,” anyone?), dips, burgers, sides, soups, and stews. Gotta try “Refried Beans” to see whether it beats mine. Ditto with “Midnight Black Bean Soup”: I need to try it with Mexican oregano. One of my Post-It’s is for “Slow-Baked Garbanzos.” What? I love garbanzos, I can’t wait to try this technique! All 9 Post-It’s: I can’t wait to try!

Well. I'm in the Rancho Gordo Bean Club so anything by Steve Sando is going to be great. This book is very approachable, and gives recipes for some of those varieties you now can find in local stores, or online. But also suggestions for substitutes, if you live in a Bean Wasteland.

great variety and good instructions for this healthy menu item

There are so many good things about this book. It includes great descriptions about heirloom beans with suggested recipes. The recipes I’ve made so far are clear and easy to follow and most importantly, they are delicious.