32 Handy Canned Beans Recipes We Love

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Canned beans are among the most useful cupboard staples. Whether you keep black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans or others on hand, a few cans can add substance to everything from beef chilli to a speedy cassoulet. Explore our favourite easy recipes using canned beans - or jarred beans, if you stock José Andrés’ preferred brand.

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Chicken Tostadas

Rotisserie chicken, salsa macha and canned black beans make these vibrant tostadas achievable in 20 minutes. Fresh cabbage, radishes, avocado, pickled onion and queso fresco provide a generous mix of flavours and textures that brings the dish together.

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Crispy Chicken Thighs with Lemony White Beans

In this weeknight meal from F&W recipe developer Anna Theoktisto, the rendered fat from crisp, bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs becomes a schmaltzy pan sauce for cannellini beans and cherry tomatoes.

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Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with Chickpeas)

This traditional Italian vegetarian recipe is ready in only 30 minutes and uses just one pot. It relies on cupboard essentials including canned chickpeas, ditalini pasta, tomato purée and vegetable stock.

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Crispy Black Bean Cakes with Sour Cream and Avocado

Pan-fry black bean cakes, then serve them with avocado, sour cream, spring onions and lime wedges for an excellent vegetarian meal that takes half an hour.

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Smoky Three-Bean Salad

Three beans require three cans: one each of pinto beans, kidney beans and black beans. Marianne Williams’ simple salad also calls for canned fire-roasted sweetcorn and tomatoes with chillies, creating something smoky, tangy and fresh all at once.

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Saucy White Beans and Greens on Toast

Justin Chapple pairs canned cannellini beans and Roman beans, also called cranberry beans, with spinach, jalapeño, cumin and citrus, then spoons the mixture onto slices of toasted rustic bread.

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Mediterranean-Inspired Broccoli and Bean Salad

Create layers of colour, texture and flavour with substantial broccoli, chickpeas and kidney beans. A lively dressing, briny Kalamata olives, red onion and plenty of salty feta finish the salad.

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Tuscan White Bean Soup

F&W recipe developer Renu Dhar’s creamy, garlicky soup is loaded with cannellini beans, pancetta, lacinato kale and soft vegetables including carrots and leeks.

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Kerala-Style Vegetable Coconut Curry

Chef Jes Thomas’s warming, fragrant vegetarian curry is enriched with coconut milk and filled with canned chickpeas, potatoes and cauliflower.

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White Beans and Pork Sausage with Pistachio-Lemon Crumble

Crisp white wine, fragrant herbs and bright lemon zest offset the richness of bratwursts and creamy cannellini beans, while also complementing the caramelised fennel and red onion in this satisfying bake. A striking green pistachio crumble makes the finished dish ready to serve.

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Courgette, Sweetcorn, Black Bean, and Jack Cheese Quesadillas

Grated, sweet and plump summer courgette gives these vegetarian quesadillas satisfying substance. They are also packed with melted Monterey Jack cheese, black beans and juicy sweetcorn, whether fresh or frozen.

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Miso Carbonara White Beans

Craig Ruff combines Italian and Japanese flavours in this dish, a fusion cuisine known as itameshi in Japan. Three cans of creamy cannellini beans absorb the flavours of smoky bacon, pungent Parmigiano-Reggiano, rich egg yolks and intensely savoury white miso.

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Butter Beans with Calabrian Chilli

Canned butter beans and jarred Calabrian chillies mean this bright, uncomplicated side can reach the table in 30 minutes. Prepare the candied lemon peel garnish ahead of time to make it even quicker.

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Smoky Beans and Greens in Tomato Broth

Tomato purée and sun-dried tomatoes quickly create an aromatic broth for this fast, comforting supper. Although the recipe specifies collard greens and a can of butter beans, you can substitute whatever you have available.

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Rajma (Kidney Bean Curry) Tacos

Creamy, deeply spiced vegetarian kidney bean curry makes an unexpectedly delicious filling for corn tortillas. Thanks to canned kidney beans and tomatoes, Chitra Agrawal’s tacos can be on the table in less than an hour.

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Kale and White Bean Stew

Robust greens such as kale add welcome colour to the table during colder months. This uncomplicated stew uses only nine ingredients in total, salt and pepper included, and prepares kale in the Portuguese style with fresh pork sausage, canned tomatoes and beans.

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Marinated Chickpea Salad with Radishes, Cucumber, and Queso de Freir

For this 30-minute chickpea salad by 2021 F&W Best New Chef Paola Velez, canned chickpeas are combined with crisp vegetables and a punchy dressing of lemon, garlic and cumin. Strips of fried queso de freir, crisp outside and melting within, provide the final flourish.

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Classic Beef Chilli

This chilli uses two varieties of canned beans: dark red kidney beans and black beans. You can have a substantial potful ready in just under an hour.

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White Bean and Ham Soup

Grace Parisi purées three cans of cannellini beans with aromatic vegetables and chicken stock infused with ham for a creamy, smoky soup. It is finished with diced ham and croutons.

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Crispy Cheese Burritos with Chorizo and Eggs

These cheese-crusted burritos make chorizo an ideal breakfast sausage. Filled with black beans studded with chorizo, scrambled eggs and creamy avocado, they are served with onion, jalapeño, coriander and salsa for a delicious beginning to the day.

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Cacio e Pepe Broccolini with Crispy White Beans and Burrata

Cookbook author Hetty McKinnon draws on the flavours of cacio e pepe for this hearty all-in-one meal. Charred, bitter broccolini, white beans that are both crisp and creamy after flash-frying, rich milky burrata and lively lemon unite in this straightforward recipe.

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Gina Mae’s Baked Beans

For this ideal summer side, scholar Regina Bradley elevates shop-bought barbecue sauce and canned baked beans with extra brown sugar. Apple cider vinegar balances their smoky sweetness.

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Spring Minestrone with Grated Egg Pasta

Made with a can of cannellini beans, this generous spring soup gains its deep, satisfying flavour from several ingredients. Parmigiano-Reggiano rind and vegetable umami seasoning sauce both add delicious salty richness, while curly-leaf spinach keeps the fresh vegetal character that baby spinach cannot provide.

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Quinoa, Sweetcorn, and Black Bean Salad

Fresh coriander, zesty lime, the gentle heat of jalapeño and the crisp bite of red onion make this summery grain-style salad shine. It is an excellent way to feature in-season fresh sweetcorn, though frozen sweetcorn works for the rest of the year. Add grilled or marinated tofu for a more substantial dish.

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Mushroom-Chickpea Pozole

Celebrity chef Marcela Valladolid’s quick, vegetable-rich version of pozole features baby portobello and shiitake mushrooms. It swaps dried hominy for canned chickpeas.

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White Bean and Tuna Salad with Shaved Squash

In this Justin Chapple dish, creamy cannellini beans, large tuna flakes and ribbons of courgette and summer squash take on the flavour of a lemon-and-thyme marinade.

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Chickpeas and Kale in Spicy Pomodoro Sauce

This recipe from chef Missy Robbins of Brooklyn’s Lilia was selected as one of Food & Wine’s best in 2018. In her take on spicy pomodoro, Robbins replaces pasta with tangles of kale and chickpeas, then tops the dish with plenty of fresh herbs and salty pecorino cheese.

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Easy Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet

Cookbook author Molly Stevens gives this hearty French casserole a speedy treatment with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, smoked sausage and two cans of white beans, such as Great Northern or cannellini.

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Blackened Skillet Pork Chops with Beans and Spinach

Before pan-frying bone-in rib-cut pork chops, rub them with a homemade wet blackening spice mixture containing fresh ginger, garlic, lime juice and an aromatic blend of dried ground spices. Canned cannellini beans and spinach cook in the same pan, making for an easy, balanced meal.

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Cabbage and White Bean Soup with Prosciutto

Canned white beans, tomatoes and Savoy cabbage come together in this brothy soup scented with rosemary, which is garnished with salty prosciutto.

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Mustard Salmon with Cannellini Bean Ragù

With canned beans, Giada De Laurentiis’s elegant, flavour-filled main course can be served in less than an hour. A short simmer with prosciutto and escarole makes the beans especially rich.

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“Steak Bomb” Rice and Beans

A can of black beans forms the base of Boston chef Jamie Bissonnette’s version of the popular New England sub sandwich. It is packed with thinly sliced rib-eye steak, onions, peppers and mushrooms, with a layer of gooey American cheese to complete it.