24 Delicious Healthy Bean Based Dinner Recipes
Bean-based dinner recipes offer affordable, filling meals packed with protein, fiber, and flavor. Perfect for meat replacements or extensions.
These bean based dinner recipes are just what you’ve been looking for. Beans are affordable and filling. They can replace or extend meat in dishes – even burgers.
Why You’ll Love Bean Based Dinners
There are a lot of great reasons to incorporate more beans into your diet. And you don’t have to replace meat with them. Lots of great bean dishes combine meat with beans.
Nutrition: beans give you lots of plant-based protein, fiber, iron, folate and potassium. They really contain a lot of good stuff in a very small package.
Affordable: no matter how expensive groceries get, beans are cheaper than meat. You can buy them in bulk and store them dried or canned. They’re great for extending or replacing meat in dishes.
So much you can make with them: you can use them in dishes soups and stews to salads and dips.
Sustainable: finally, beans are environmentally friendly. They’re a low-impact crop that requires less water and fertilizer than other protein sources, making them a more environmentally friendly option.
In this list…
You’ll find recipes from salads to stews, bean burger patties, meatless meatloaf, bean based meatballs, dips, curries, casseroles and more.
Bean Based Dinner Recipes
Chickpea-Encrusted Black Bean Burger
Sometimes you just need a burger, and when you do, black beans and chickpeas are a great way to make a meatless burger patty. It's got all kinds of flavor with poblano peppers and adobo sauce and panko breadcrumbs to give it a nice crunchy texture.
Black Bean Meatballs
These meatballs are made from a mixture of black beans, breadcrumbs, walnuts and spices. An egg binds them together so they hold their shape.
You serve them on spaghetti with marinara sauce, just like traditional meatballs. This dish has a hearty and satisfying texture that is reminiscent of traditional meatballs, but with a plant-based twist.
Black Bean Zucchini Vegan Enchiladas
Soft tortillas are filled with a flavorful mixture of black beans, zucchini, onion, and spices. Then you top them with a creamy avocado sauce or whatever you like.
When all of these ingredients come together, you get a dish packed with flavor and nutrition. The black beans provide a hearty and satisfying texture, while the zucchini adds a fresh and slightly crunchy note. The spices give the filling a warm and comforting flavor
Cheesy White Bean Tomato Bake
It's cheesy, it's tomato-y... it ought to be a pasta dish, but instead of carb-heavy pasta, you get butter beans. The sauce is seasoned with shallots, garlic, "Ëœnduja paste and thyme, with spinach leaves cooked in.
Meatless Meatloaf Muffins with Beans
The whole concept of meatless meatloaf sounds like a contradiction. This one involves cannellini beans and oatmeal made into delicious muffins with buffalo wing sauce for flavor.
Kidney Bean Burgers
These burger patties are made from a combination of kidney beans and oatmeal, along with flavorings like oregano, garlic, and paprika. They have a wonderful, golden, crusty texture.
Baked Vegan Chickpea Burgers
These vegan chickpea burgers are made with rolled oats and seasonings like garlic, tamari, and Dijon mustard. You make them in a food processor and bake them in the oven. They make really good alternative to a meat patty.
Dr. Pepper Baked Beans Recipe
This recipe starts off as a fairly typical baked beans recipe. It's got pork and beans with bacon, onions, brown sugar, mustard, and barbecue sauce. But then you add Dr Pepper and that's where it gets real.
Sticky Sesame Chickpeas
Here's a mouth-watering dish that is packed with flavor. It features chickpeas coated in a sweet and savory sauce that is infused with the flavors of sesame, garlic, maple syrup and ginger. It calls for soy sauce, but you can use tamari to make it gluten-free.
Indian beans curry - A delicious mixed Indian beans curry
This recipe gets its heartiness from a mixture of kidney beans, black lentils, chickpeas, Bengal gram and dried black-eyed peas. It's all simmered in a fragrant sauce full of the bold spices of Indian cuisine.
Butter Bean Curry
This one features butter beans, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a ton of delicious spices and seasonings. It's a filling meal that's vegan, oil-free and gluten-free.
Sloppy Joe Cornbread Casserole
Sloppy Joe's are perfect comfort food, and so is corn bread. The two come together in this meatless version which features red kidney beans, cannellini beans, tomato sauce, brown sugar, mustard, and delicious seasonings.
The cornbread crust is made with a combination of cornmeal and whole wheat flour.
Instant Pot Bean Soup (Vegan & Gluten-free!)
This bean soup is vegetarian and gluten-free, and full of flavor. The soup features a variety of beans, including black beans, kidney beans, and great northern beans, which create a rich and hearty texture.
The dish also includes flavorful ingredients such as garlic, cumin, coriander and chili powder, which add a warm and earthy flavor profile. Cooking it in a pressure cooker ensures that the beans are tender and the flavors are fully infused.
Easy Red Beans and Rice (One Hour!)
This delicious and easy One Pot Red Beans and Rice dish is sure to please your taste buds. This recipe is made with flavorful ingredients including bacon, mirepoix, andouille sausage, and a variety of spices that come together to create something very special.
One of the best things about this recipe is that it can be made in less than one hour, making it perfect for a busy weeknight when you want a quick and satisfying meal.
Healthy and Delicious Vegetarian Instant Pot Moroccan Stew
If you're looking for a flavorful and hearty vegetarian dish, this Vegetarian Instant Pot Moroccan Stew recipe is a must-try. The dish features a fragrant blend of spices, including garlic, cumin, and coriander, which add a warm and complex flavor to the stew. The dish also includes chickpeas and butternut squash, which create a hearty and satisfying texture.
Vegetarian Tacos with Black Beans, Feta Cheese & Pico de Gallo
These meatless tacos have refried beans for heartiness. They're flavored with feta cheese crumbles, arugula, cumin, chili, onions and garlic. And you top all that with homemade pico de gallo. Perfect for meatless Mondays!
Black Bean Cakes with Avocado Cream
If you love, black beans and avocado separately, wait till you try them together these black bean cakes or patties feature, corn, green onion, and cilantro. You can optionally add red pepper includes recipe for an avocado cream sauce
Ethiopian Red Lentil Stew - Misir Wot is a Vegetarian Delight!
Indulge in a flavorful and healthy vegetarian meal with this recipe for Ethiopian Lentils, also known as Misir Wot. The dish features red lentils that are cooked to a creamy consistency and seasoned with the vibrant and aromatic Berbere spice mix.
Chorizo and Butter Bean Stew with Fennel
This is a dish that is packed with flavor and texture. The butterbeans provide a creamy and satisfying texture, while the chorizo sausage adds a spicy and smoky taste. The vegetables add a touch of sweetness and crunch, while the tomato sauce ties everything together with its rich and tangy flavor.
Slow Cooker Vegetarian Sweet Potato Chili
Cold evenings are perfect for chili, and this sweet potao and black bean chili is as good as any with meat. It's also got corn, bell pepper and red beans to make it even more satisfying.
Beans and Rice Taco Soup
You can make the soup in 30 minutes and all in one pot. It just uses canned ingredients like beans and corn along with shelf stable ingredients like tomato sauce and chicken broth. And it's absolutely loaded with salsa.
Sweet Potato Black Bean Soup
This soup is so easy to make. It gets its hardiness from sweet potato and black bean, and it gets its flavor from ginger, garlic, cumin and paprika.
Rajma Masala Indian Vegan Kidney Bean Curry
Rajma masala is a vegan curry from Northern India and Pakistan that features a rich tomato gravy infused with fennel, onion and mustard seeds. It gets even more flavor from curry leaves, ginger, black onion seeds and slit chillies.
Smoked Pork Joint, Sausages And Butter Beans Stew
This Pork Joint, Sausages and Butterbeans Stew recipe is a hearty and satisfying dish that is sure to impress. The stew features tender ham hock, butter beans and pork sausage. all cooked together in a flavorful broth. The broth is made with a blend of aromatic herbs and spices, including turmeric, thyme, and bay leaves.
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