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.

Wow! From the very beginning you can tell Steve is very passionate about beans. Beans being one of those humble foods & plants many don’t think much about but the author has invested a lot of time & energy into knowing as much as possible about this humble but delicious & healthy little food.

His passion for heritage & heirloom beans is shown on every page of this cookbook. The introduction includes information on the history & cultivation both at home & commercially. He highlights the different flavors in various varieties & the type of dishes they work best in.

While Steve does highlight his farm, Rancho Gordo’s, heirloom beans in the recipes he also includes more readily accessible & less expensive grocery store varieties as well. There are some rare recipes where he notes, that the grocery store varieties are not likely to achieve the same depth of flavor, ie “proceed at your own risk” but most seem to be delicious even if obtaining the heirlooms isn’t accessible for you.

Steve does like some luxury or harder to source ingredients in some of the dishes & in his pantry. Banana & pineapple vinegars, come to mind. They also sound delicious! He does suggest alternates in the actual recipes if you can’t source those.

I’ve been cooking with dried beans all of my adult life. This book introduces ideas & dishes I’ve never thought of let alone heard of. The dishes origins span much of the globe. With the exception of the dishes that feature seafood (my personal ick) there are precious few recipes in this that I’m not eager to try. Even the seafood recipes look intriguing, so if seafood *is* your thing, you likely won’t be disappointed. He may have even convinced me that anchovies in the fridge & in my cooking might be an excellent idea. My mother has been trying to do that for decades!

While some recipes are naturally vegetarian (some even vegan) he does provide suggestions on how to make at least some of them vegetarian. Who knew Kalamata olives & garlic could sub in for anchovies? Not me, that’s who. Other recipes it would be easy enough to do by swapping broths. However, if you’re looking for a strictly vegetarian bean book…this is not it.

Some dishes do use stock & salted meats to layer in flavor, but others rely on the bean’s natural flavor and the complementary ingredients. Steve definitely believes beans without stock & ham can be just as flavorful & should be tried. I concur. There’s nothing like a nice pot of beans to fill you up, especially in the autumn.

This is a cookbook that could easily double as a coffee table book. The dishes & beans are photographed as glamorously as any supermodel in a fashion magazine thanks to photographer, Ed Anderson. Really, this is the glow up that beans needed but we didn’t know they needed it.

Thank you to NetGalley & Ten Speed Press for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book on beans. Tasty recipes and amazing photos, with information on types of beans. It's a unique and much needed book and offers a myriad of recipes to enjoy this amazing food.

A creative approach to what's often considered poor man's food - the beans. Contains recipes from around the world, from Asia to South America, for a variety of dishes - from cold salads to hot soups and stews. Old and new, some with meat, some suitable for vegetarians. Who knew you can utilize beans in so many ways, from baking in a casserole to making pastes for sauces and dips. Truly, everyone will find something for themselves here.

The only downside is I expected photos of every dish, but instead they showcase only every second or third dish featured in the book.

Thank you Netgalley and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for the ARC.

This is THE bean cookbook. It has earned the name "The Bean Book". Sando goes over all the different ways to cook beans, and has a list of FIFTY different bean varieties. Then you get to the recipes. All look delicious!
I will definitely be grabbing this on release to add to my cookbook collection!

4.5 stars, rated up

As a vegan, I love beans, love them. From oven roasted spiced garbanzo beans, northern white bean dip with home baked bread, to a non-tahini garlic hummus like dip (severe allergies), three bean chili, and soups galore, beans are a giant staple of my diet and I was so excited to see a new bean cookbook, and am so thankful to have received an early copy.

This book is laid out cleanly, with an easy to read font, and extremely appealing photos.

Recipes I’m particularly interested in - it’s currently still too hot for soup but I am awaiting the cooler months so I can make a bunch of these.
*Summertime White Bean and Tomato Panzanella - making this over the upcoming weekend to nosh on with sourdough.
*Red Beans tossed with Wilted Arugula and Pumpkin Seeds (no eggs)
*Fennel, Potato, and White Bean Soup with Saffron (with vegan butter)
*Poggio Etrusco’s Classic Tuscan Vegetable-Bread Soup
*Jeremy Fox’s Yellow Eye Soup
*Midnight Black Bean Soup
*Staffan Terje’s Royal Corona, Swiss Chard, and Mushroom Stew (with vegan parm)
*Lalabi
*Arnab Chakladar’s Chana Masala
*Italian Pasta E Fagioli (minus pancetta, with vegan parm)

I could go on with my list, but I’ll leave it the current ten.

This isn’t a fully vegan cookbook, or even a vegetarian one, but a vast number of the recipes are vegan, or easily veganizable, and, to go by the photos, the end results look absolutely amazing and delicious.

My one issue with this cookbook that didn’t work was most of the recipes measurements were in cups, not metric.

Issue aside, this is one I’ll be getting for my ‘frequent-use cookbooks’ collection.




Thank you to Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for the PDF

We have dried beans from local farms (including Rancho Gordo!) and are always looking for more bean recipes to include our beans in. This book has lovely photos, accessible recipes, and love how affordable and well-rounded beans can be. Many thanks for the advance readers copy -- can't wait to make more beans!

“The Bean Book” showcases the versatility of beans with a range of flavorful recipes and beautiful photography.
However, as someone who discovered Rancho Gordo through vegan communities, I was disappointed to see that many recipes rely heavily on animal products. The addition of allergy information or icons for dietary considerations would make the book more accessible to those with specific dietary needs. Even the recipes that have vegan substitutions fail to offer specific suggestions just generically mention that it a vegan substitute can be used (specifically for eggs which are trickier to sub in than say cheese or butter).
Additionally, some recipes call for specialty ingredients that might not be easily available to all readers, with several ingredients only accessible through Rancho Gordo. Between the ingredients and significant time commitment for many of these recipes, in our family, this is more of a special occasion cookbook or a coffee table book than a practical, every day cookbook.
Overall, while this cookbook offers stunning images and recipes that will offer you new and exciting ways to incorporate beans into your diet, I do think it could have benefited significantly from some standard icons throughout the book to help clarify dietary information.

Like many others, we've been trying to cut some meat out of our lives. I was drawn to this book, because it would give me some of the ways beans are made around the world. You find out the origin, items that can go with it, and gave me so many tips and ideas. Although this was a digital book, I'm ordering a hard copy of this for myself, and I don't do that because then I collect way too many!

Thank you to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

If you like beans or foods favored by different nationalities, buy this book! It is outstanding in every way, from how the chapters are laid out to how the recipes are laid out. Each recipe has a gorgeous photo plus an explanation of its name, origin, or other matters of interest. The ingredients and preparation are clear enough for anyone to follow. The book even includes specific information about what to serve with the featured recipes. The author is clearly an expert; however he comes across as friendly and entertaining. I have marked too many recipes to mention by name. I’d give this book 5+ stars if I could!

This a great educational book as well as a cook book. I learned a lot about beans and could therefore understand their uses in everyday life and in specific meals. I loved the full-color photographs that show great detail of the beans. I was also able to see what recipes should look which makes me less nervous to cook them.

Steve Sando is an heirloom bean advocate and founder of Rancho Gordo. His new book not only has intriguing recipes which actually seem doable for meat eaters, vegetarians, and vegans, but is also beautifully illustrated with color photographs. One of my favorite parts of the book is the description of color, texture, and taste of fifty different heirloom beans. Each one is illustrated and has suggested recipes. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I think this book fell into my hands at a great time. After reading Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino, I've been more interested in heirloom foods for environmental and global food security reasons. So finding an entire cookbook (and company that supports small heirloom farms!) dedicated to heirloom beans? Sounds like providence.

I love when cookbooks include backstories, information, and tips in their introductions and recipe intros, which this one does and in a way that can be extremely helpful. Plus the recipes themselves are organized into interesting categories and use a variety of the thematic ingredient. Plus most - if not all, recipes include a vegetarian variation. Most recipes seem to have influence from Mexican/Central American and Italian influence with a bit of African and Persian sprinkled in.

My only real complaint is that it says it's aimed at home cooks, but a lot of the ingredient list are things that are not common to most home cook shelves, such as safflower oil, pineapple vinegar, specific Spanish paprikas and Mexican oreganos, and endives are some examples that I can think of (unless perhaps you're from a very urban area and can source these ingredients at your local Walmart? It's a sad day to be a rural dweller). Plus just the constant stressing of sourcing super fresh ingredients - not always an option for the home cook on a budget. Sometimes it just gives exclusionist vibes. :')

As someone who eats plant based and loves beans, I was excited when I saw this cookbook. The photographs are fantastic and there are a # of recipes I plan on making soon. Love the descriptions of the many beans that are out there and this will also encourage me to branch out beyond just black beans or kidney beans.

For anyone that is looking to add more beans and protein to their diet, this is a good place to start.

I routinely cook beans in many ways for my family. They are nutritious and tasty in so many different ways, but after so many years, I needed some new and exciting recipes for them. Steve Sando has provided this in an easy to follow with excellent results cookbook. A friend of mine told me about the book and she was right, it deserves to be shared with everyone looking for healthy meal options that won't break your budget and will make your family ask for more.

My husband and I love beans - when we have them. But we don't really have them all that often. That might change now.

I usually read the introduction in my cookbooks. I found this introduction to be informative and fun reading. The photographs are gorgeous and the beans shown are colorful and exciting new options.

The recipes open with a selection of bean appetizers and then moves to salads. The Garbanzo Salad with Shaved Red Onions and Fennel sounded really good to me. The next section is Soups. That's one of my favorite ways to eat beans. One of the recipes that appealed to me was the Escarole Soup with Giant White Beans and Country Ham. Then you'll find Stews and other Main dishes, some with meat, some without, but so many that I'd like to try. Do you like Baked Beans? Lots and lots of delicious sounding baked bean dishes are provided, but these are not your mother's baked bean recipes.

Some many good things to try. And to eat healthier.

This cookbook is filled with delicious recipes for cooking with beans! I love the variety both in cuisine types and categories, including dips, sides, mains, and even desserts! There are a lot of recipes I haven't heard of before and can't wait to try! As this book was written by the founder of the Rancho Gordo bean company, the recipes focus on using the types of dried beans the company sells, many of which are uncommon. However, he does give a list of substitutes for most recipes, so you can use something easier to find, if needed.

The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars, is that it has neither allergy/diet labels, nor nutrition information. I personally find those things very helpful in cookbooks, as I can quickly scan through recipes to find ones that work for the people I am cooking for.

I've already made a few recipes from this book, there really is no limit to what you can do with beans! I am a vegetarian and just love how cheap and healthy beans are, and the vast variety. I love that Sando gives me so many more options to keep beans fresh and exciting for my family. Highly recommend, such a versatile book!

Beans at ist best.
Die Vielfalt der Bohnen, die vielfältigen Zubereitungsmœglichkeiten.
Wer Bohnen mag, mag diese Buch.

The Bean Book is a fresh tutorial guide to the staple versatile legumes written by Steve Sando, with recipes curated by the author. Due out 10th Sept 2024 from Penguin Random House on their Ten Speed Press imprint, it's 288 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

Beans (and other legumes) are often shoved to the side in most dishes. There are relatively few recipes where they are really allowed to shine. Beans are used to provide protein and bulk to soups and stews. The author is a true believer and the 100 recipes here are both traditional and innovative. Additionally, the author invites readers to learn about the different types of beans and their uses, and the book is full of minutiae and interesting tidbits about origins and species of bean, and how to showcase them at their best. This -is- a book full of heirloom beans (which the author's company sells), but he provides alternatives in the recipes to rarer heirloom beans.

The introductory tutorials (how to choose, how to grow, general how to cook, and pantry/staples lists), a very handy primer on bean types, leads directly into the recipes, arranged thematically: bean dips/appetizers, salads, soups, braises stews & stovetop dishes, beans & grains, baked beans, patties fillings sauces & more, and sweets stocks & salsas.

Recipe ingredients are listed bullet style in a sidebar, followed by step-by-step prep instructions. Ingredient measures are given in imperial (American) units. The recipes do not have nutritional info listed. The ingredients will mostly be readily available at any well stocked grocery store in North America. Some of the bean varieties might require a specialist grocery store or international grocer. The emphasis is on whole ingredients and the recipes are fairly light on premade/convenience ingredients, which is a plus. The author does use items like premade hot sauce/pepper sauce, but otherwise very few convenience items.

About 20% of the recipes are accompanied by one or more photos. The dishes are professionally styled, colorful, appealing, and appropriate.

This is a good "everyday" recipe book and will find a home in casual home kitchens. Not all the recipes are vegetarian/vegan friendly (many are), but there are a generous number of entries which are without meat or animal products and most of the others can be adapted fairly easily.

Five stars. This is a very attractive colorful and useful book. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home use, smallholding, gardening club library, or similar uses.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.