The Bean Book was an excellent introduction to cooking whole beans. I recently got more interested in using high quality sources of plant protein in recipes. My partner loves to cook and is a huge fan of heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo. When I came across a cookbook from the founder of Rancho Gordo, I had to check it out! At first, I was put off by eating beans due to the association with bloating and bland, canned bean flavors but they are truly a magical superfood. Studies involving centenarians show that beans are a key ingredient in their diet. “Beans are the cornerstone of every Blue Zones diet in the world: black beans in Nicoya; lentils, garbanzo, and white beans in the Mediterranean; and soybeans in Okinawa.” -from the bluezone.com website. This gorgeous book introduces a variety of cooking methods, equipments (from a clay pot to a slow cooker), and highlights 50 varieties of heirloom beans, there is a recipe for each variety. Heirloom means that the genetic makeup of the plant is the original, unmodified version. With the onslaught of GMOs in American farms, it is refreshing to have access to heirloom varieties. When the quantity of a crop becomes more important than the quality, it comes at a cost: flavor. Also, heirloom means that the seeds have been preserved so that they’ll produce the same crop every time. There is a section that outlines pantry basics to go along with your beans. It lists herbs, spices, chiles, etc. This book includes a wide variety of recipes including Persian, Spanish, Italian, North African, Jewish, Indian, and Latin American influences. There are dips, salads, soups, stews, baked beans (with meat, in a casserole, or ) and even sweets. I even saw a recipe for cornbread. corn is a bean? Didn’t seem right so I looked it up and beans and corn are seeds, however corn is a fruit, not a legume. Maize is a grass but because corn comes from the flowering part of the plant, it is considered a fruit. More Fun Facts: -the majority of heirloom beans used within 2 years of harvest don’t need to be soaked prior to cooking. -bean broth can be used to make bread, it’s highly nutritious and safe for babies to eat as a first food meal. -beans fed civilization: appears they were domesticated in Mexico and Peru. I cannot wait to make some warm savory stews and pies from The Bean Book this Fall. I will be purchasing multiple copies. I know some folks who’d love this as a gift. Thank you to Netgalley and Ten Speed Press for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a great Book lots of information great recipes. The photos of Beans and food are very vibrant this book is a must for every Bean lover and cook. Put in your cart and buy today.

I am in the Rancho Gordo bean club and I'm always looking for recipes for their lovely beans! 🫘 This book is right up my alley. I love to cook beans with lots of ingredients and meats or alone and this is a very good book. I read one of the comments saying they use exotic ingredients really??? 😂 Not sure where that person lives but I can just go to publics and get anything required plus my awesome Rancho Gordo beans! 🫘

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, 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!