"Can He Do It Like This" Vegan Cranberry Beans {Recipe}

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Vegan beans are tricky for meat-eaters. Beans are typically comforting aided by smoky chunks of meat like smoked pork or turkey. This cranberry beans recipe is meatless, but the beans are creamy and delicious.

I’ve been growing my own cranberry beans lately and was motivated to cook them. Fresh beans offer a lot on the flavor side so I wanted to keep the flavor “clean” with a veggie-forward vibe.

Terms like “heirloom” add intrigue to the dish, but this beans recipe is super simple, yet highly flavorful as beans should be whether we’re talking about red beans, white beans, lima beans, or even lentils.

Some days my food intake involves my regular oatmeal morning fix followed by a big pot of beans for lunch and dinner. These beans are an example.

What Are Cranberry Beans?

Cranberry beans are a variety of beans that gets their name due to their unique color. Prior to cooking the beans or light in color with pinkish-red stripes all of them, hence the name. Texture-wise these beans are soft relative to most beans which make them creamy when fully cooked. They are most comparable to pinto beans but flavor-wise have a more nutty flavor.

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Can He Do It Like This

Ingredients Needed For This Cranberry Beans Recipe

• Cranberry Beans
• Garlic Cloves
• Yellow Onion
• Bell Pepper
• Padron Peppers
• Celery
• Carrots
• Fresh Tomatoes
• Paprika
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper
• Allspice
• Bay Leaves
• Culantro
• Swiss chard
• Vegetable Stock
• Water

How To Cook Cranberry Beans

Make spice mix

Combine paprika, allspice, salt, and pepper in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.

Make Sofrito

Dice garlic, bell peppers, and onions. Saute them in a pan with olive oil 1-2 minutes. Add a pinch or two of the dry seasoning mix.

Cook The Beans

Add the beans to the pot and mix them with the sofrito. Add a bit more seasoning plus the peeled but uncut carrots, whole celery, tomatoes, vegetable stock, water, bay leaf, patron peppers, and half the remaining spice mix. Bring beans to a boil then reduce to a simmer covered for 30-40 minutes.

Puree The Vegetables

Remove vegetables (carrots, celery, padron peppers, and tomatoes) from the pot of beans. Place veggies in a food processor along with a ¼ cup or more of the cooking liquid, and the culantro then puree to a thick paste.

Add pureed mix, last of the seasoning, and the Swiss chard. Cook another 15 minutes. Stir and serve.

Cooking Tips and Considerations For Cranberry Beans

I used fresh beans for this recipe so soaking the beans was unnecessary. However, if you use dry beans you’ll definitely need to soak them prior to cooking.

Cranberry beans are heirloom, so you’ll likely find them at farmer’s markets or specialty grocery stores. Depending on the location you can find them in the bulk section with other dry beans.

Your sofrito can be as simple or complex as you prefer. I kept things very simple with your base ingredients (garlic, onions, and peppers). Sofrito is a Caribbean thing - using aromatic ingredients to add a layer of flavor to any dish.

Don’t skip the puree step. This is a major flavor bomb! First off the vegetables cooked whole infuse the beans with fresh flavor vegetables. The vegetables absorb the flavors from the beans as well.

Adding the culantro to the puree adds a fresh herbal and brightening element to the dish. All these flavors are married together by adding the puree back.

Culantro and cilantro are cousins. Culantro is primarily found in ethnic markets focused on Caribbean or Latin markets. Culantro has more intense flavor, but if it’s not available feel free to substitute cilantro.

This approach to cooking beans works for most beans. Feel free to substitute red, kidney, navy, lima, etc. as subs for cranberry beans.

Serve these beans with other sides like instant pot green beans, sweet potato salad, and coconut rice. 

Similar Recipes

Vegan Red Beans and Rice

Butter Beans Salad

Vegan Blackeyed Peas

Instant Pot Black Beans

Vegan Collard Greens Curry

Southern Green Beans

making this recipe

If you make this cranberry beans recipe, please come back and leave me a comment below with your feedback. Definitely take a photo of the dish and be sure to tag #foodfidelity so that I can see them.

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Vegan Stewed Beans

Creamy and delicious beans recipe featuring cranberry beans with layers of flavor for a comforting vegan side dish.

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Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 52kcal

Author: Marwin Brown

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 lb fresh beans if using dried you'll need to soak before cooking
• ▢ 4-5 garlic cloves diced,
• ▢ 1 yellow onion diced
• ▢ 1 medium bell pepper diced
• ▢ 5-6 padron peppers substitute other mild chili peppers or remove the seeds from any spicy ones like )serrano, jalapeno, fresno)
• ▢ 2-3 celery stems whole
• ▢ 2 medium carrots peeled
• ▢ 2-3 medium tomatoes core removed
• ▢ 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon black pepper
• ▢ 1 teaspoon allspice
• ▢ 1-2 bay leaves
• ▢ 2-3 culantro leaves substitute fresh cilantro (¼ cup roughly chopped)
• ▢ 2-3 large swiss chard leaves cleaned, de-stemmed, and roughly chopped
• ▢ 1 ½ cups Vegetable Stock
• ▢ 1 cup Water or enough to cover the beans completely

Instructions

Make spice mix

• Combine paprika, allspice, salt, and pepper in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.

Make Sofrito

• Dice garlic, bell peppers, and onions. Saute them in a pan with olive oil 1-2 minutes. Add a pinch or two of the dry seasoning mix.

Cook The Beans

• Add the beans to the pot and mix them with the sofrito. Add a bit more seasoning plus the peeled but uncut carrots, whole celery, tomatoes, vegetable stock, water, bay leaf, patron peppers, and half the remaining spice mix. Bring beans to a boil then reduce to a simmer covered for 30-40 minutes.

Puree The Vegetables

• Remove vegetables (carrots, celery, padron peppers, and tomatoes) from the pot of beans. Place veggies in a food processor along with a ¼ cup or more of the cooking liquid, and the culantro then puree to a thick paste.
• Add pureed mix, last of the seasoning, and the Swiss chard. Cook another 15 minutes. Stir and serve.

Video

Notes

I used fresh beans for this recipe so soaking the beans was unnecessary. However, if you use dry beans you’ll definitely need to soak them prior to cooking.

Cranberry beans are heirloom, so you’ll likely find them at farmer’s markets or specialty grocery stores. Depending on the location you can find them in the bulk section with other dry beans.

Your sofrito can be as simple or complex as you prefer. I kept things very simple with your base ingredients (garlic, onions, and peppers). Sofrito is a Caribbean thing - using aromatic ingredients to add a layer of flavor to any dish.

Don’t skip the puree step. This is a major flavor bomb! First off the vegetables cooked whole infuse the beans with fresh flavor vegetables. The vegetables absorb the flavors from the beans as well.

Adding the culantro to the puree adds a fresh herbal and brightening element to the dish. All these flavors are married together by adding the puree back.

Culantro and cilantro are cousins. Culantro is primarily found in ethnic markets focused on Caribbean or Latin markets. Culantro has more intense flavor, but if it’s not available feel free to substitute cilantro.

This approach to cooking beans works for most beans. Feel free to substitute red, kidney, navy, lima, etc. as subs for cranberry beans.

Serve these beans with other sides like instant pot green beans and coconut rice. 

Nutrition

Calories: 52kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 520mg | Potassium: 406mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 4789IU | Vitamin C: 47mg | Calcium: 52mg | Iron: 1mg

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