A growing collection of Primary Beans' favorite recipes, stories, and recommendations meant to inspire mindful living and bring your pantry to life.
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Venezuelan-style arepas with secret sauce
While living on the East Coast we became obsessed with the stuffed cornmeal cakes, known as arepas, from NYC's Caracas Arepas Bar. We still dream about the signature tangy, bright-yellow sauce.
Kenyan kunde-inspired beans in a peanut-tomato sauce
Kunde is a Kenyan dish featuring black-eyed peas cooked in a peanut-tomato sauce. This recipe swaps out the black-eyed peas for cranberry beans and comes together in a snap.
Mediterranean-inspired tomato and bean salad
I love the bright, refreshing flavors of a Mediterranean, Greek-style salad. This is a loosely inspired dish, featuring tomatoes, salty feta, and lots of fresh herbs.
Mexican-inspired refried beans with pickled onions
I love refried beans, and though I typically see them made with pinto beans, cranberry beans act as an excellent substitute. Cranberry beans are slightly milder in flavor but still yield a delicious result.
Indian-inspired bean tadka
Creamy cranberry beans pair nicely with fat and spice, ideal for Indian cooking. Tadka is a South Asian technique used to bloom spices in oil to extract their essential flavor compounds.
Italian-inspired brothy beans
A good bowl of brothy beans is simple to put together, but oh-so-comforting! The ingredients here are inspired by Italian cooking, like anchovies, garlic, and lemon.
1 pot of beans, 5 tasty meals
Here are 5 distinct meals made from a pot of Cranberry beans, featuring various cuisines across the globe. These are “no-recipe” recipes, so they’re highly flexible and adaptable.
Abra Berens' cranberry bean salad w/ roasted carrots + mojo de ajo
I came to know cranberry beans in the kitchen at Petersham Nurseries under the tutelage of Skye Gyngell. She called them by their Italian name, borlotti beans.
Abra Berens' tomato + parsnip stew w/ wilted kale
I like to finish these stews in the oven to slowly evaporate the liquid while creating a bit of a crust on top. It takes a little longer but requires less attention than the stovetop...
Abra Berens' greens + bean pot licker
My friend Erin Stanley turned me on to cooking broccolini with some pasta cooking water until it is just about to fall apart. Swap pot liquor for pasta water and here we are.
Company update from our founders (November 2021)
Launching this next crop is a huge milestone for us and our small team is working feverishly to get so many new and exciting things launched around the holidays.
Cheesy baked beans in tomato sauce
An easy and comforting dinner that comes together quickly during the week. The anchovies dissolve and add a savory complexity. For a complete meal, serve over a pile of orzo or with crusty bread.
Spicy bean cakes with cilantro-yogurt sauce
These spicy bean cakes are a fun cross between bean patties and my mom’s pakoras. Their crisp exterior and warm, flavorful interior pair beautifully with a dollop of cooling cilantro-yogurt sauce.
Food memories: Q&A with Karishma Pradhan
Meet Karishma Pradhan, an incredibly talented recipe developer who speaks our language about mastering the basics for easy and flexible meals at home.
Cranberry beans with grilled radicchio and mushrooms
Our ideal fall salad comes together in a pinch with distinctly bitter radicchio, nutty cranberry beans, and a bright vinaigrette. Applying high heat to the chicories brings out their natural sweetness.
Fall chickpea salad with charred chicories
Lemony marinated chickpeas, salty crumbled feta, and a silky spicy dressing round out the charred chicories. Best of all, it’s satisfying enough as a standalone dish.
A note about climate change from our CEO
As we get ready to bring incredible new bean varieties to your table, we’ve also been navigating the realities that come with working directly with farms.
The Bean Protocol™, explained: Conversation with Unique Hammond
We chatted with Unique Hammond, Bean Protocol™ specialist, about the healing powers of plant-based eating, the science behind the protocol, and why beans are key to a healthy overall well-being.
No-ketchup sticky baked beans
I grew up in New England, and few things remind me of fall more than a big pot of baked beans served on a crisp day. The baked beans of my childhood are, to my now grown-up palate, a little too sweet, so...
Food memories: Q&A with Jarrett Melendez
We chatted with our friend and recipe developer, Jarrett Melendez, about his early food memories, cooking style, and how he's merging his loves for comics and food.
Summer taco salad
This recipe is fresh, tangy, flavorful, and hearty enough to be a meal. The dressing gets its creamy consistency from Greek yogurt, jazzed up with lime juice and chipotles in adobo.
Peak-summer panzanella
The best combination of two of our favorite “heirlooms”: tomatoes and beans! We’ve loved panzanella ever since we discovered this pure genius of a salad. Our version features hearty Ayocote Blanco beans...
Sofia and Francisco's enfrijoladas
Enfrijoladas are a go-to weeknight dinner throughout Mexico and we get why: tortillas smothered in a smooth, rich bean sauce makes for a super simple, yet comforting dish.
No-fail refried beans
Once you’ve made a pot of beans using our guide, you’ve allllmost made refried beans. All you need is a little more fat to fry everything up. If you can find quality, pasture-raised lard, use it for the best flavor...
Turkish bean salad (piyaz)
A traditional Turkish salad recipe developed in partnership with New York Shuk that comes together quickly to make your summer easy and delicious. We love how the zingy preserved lemon paste and sumac...
Persian-style herby beans with yogurt and caramelized onions
This recipe is adapted from the herbaceous bean and noodle soup known as ash reshteh. Our version is heavy on the beans, and features the traditional yogurt and caramelized onion topping.
Our top 5 steps to an organized kitchen
Now that we’ve settled into the role of being our own personal chefs, we thought we’d share our favorite ways to up your cooking game and stay organized in 2021...
*Actual* veggie burgers
You make a veggie burger because you want an actual veggie burger, not a plant-based burger that tastes exactly like meat. This recipe celebrates beans and veggies...
Mexican beans 3 ways: Frijoles charros, oaxaqueños, and puercos
We're sharing 3 ways to transform your next batch of Mexican-style beans into dishes representing regional favorites across Mexico. Each of these preparations starts with a batch of frijoles de la olla.
Learn with us
We're sharing articles (and the occasional listen, film, or show) by trusted voices that explore food topics like farming, culture, health, climate change, technology, and more.
Carrot-bean soup with miso and dill
Here's a simple, nourishing carrot-bean soup with miso, lemon zest, and dill for a flavor punch. We love the rustic nature that’s achieved by keeping vegetable chunks whole rather than pureeing.
Primary Beans bookshelf
Welcome to our bookshelf! Each quarter, we're sharing books that have caught our fancy and expanded our horizons on cooking, agriculture, history, culture, and more.
Favorite shakshuka with chickpeas and harissa
Shakshuka is at the top of our list of eggs-for-dinner recipes, though in Israel it’s brunch fare above all. It’s a one-pan dish of eggs baked in a spice-laden tomato sauce, and served with a pile of warm pita bread.
A primer on bean nutrition
Beans are a magical fruit – but not for the reason you think. Beans pack in an average of 21-24 grams of protein per 1-½ cups. They’re also a key dietary source of B vitamins, potassium, magnesium...
Creamy beans on toast
A no-recipe recipe that is a must-have for your back pocket. Never forget: good, crusty bread is the perfect vessel for creamy beans. Which beans to use? Creamy beans with delicate skins...
Ayocote Blanco bean recipes
A growing collection of all our favorite Ayocote Blanco bean recipes in one place. Peak-summer panzanella, Turkish bean salad (piyaz), Baked beans with greens, dill, and yogurt, and more.
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