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.
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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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 and coconut rice.
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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 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp 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.
I will be giving this a try! My local grocery store has a great bulk section with Cranberry Beans and now I've got the perfect recipe!
Beans are a great all-year round food at our house! Will be making this recipe soon!
Wow, beans and cranberry. How interesting. Never tried this combo. But going through the post I am really tempted to try this soon.
I feel like this recipe was made just for me! I love all beans and throwing them all together for a recipe like this is pure heaven!
This meal looks so comforting! Cannot wait until it cools off to start making these delicious recipes!
Interesting! I've never heard of these but I'm intrigued and would love to try them soon. I'm always trying to find new ways to incorporate beans into our diet!
I need to find culantro! I'm allergic to so much so a new spice/herb is always a huge deal. Thanks for the tip! And this sounds so tasty. I'd love a bowl now!
I love all these spices and herbs in this dish...it's hearty and satisfying! It's perfect over rice too!
These beans turned out perfectly! I prefer softer beans because of that creamy texture, and this is exactly what I got. It was perfectly seasoned and super simple.
I'd never had cranberry beans before but this was such a fun recipe! I'm going to be making this for the meat eaters in my life and they're going to love it!