Weekend Kitchen: Heirloom Beans

Heirloom beans, richly flavored and packed with protein and fiber, star in cold-weather soups and side dishes.

Written by Janet Fletcher • Photographed by Antonis Achilleos
Produced By Susan Tyree Victoria • Food Styling by Roscoe Betsill

Long an ingredient with an image problem, dried beans are now becoming fashion-forward. Thanks to enthusiasts like Steve Sando, whose Rancho Gordo heirloom-bean stand draws lines at San Francisco's upscale Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, antique beans with evocative names like Yellow Indian Woman and Ojo de Cabra (Eye of the Goat) are finding new fans. With their speckles and splotches and eye-catching hues, these beauties deserve the spotlight. They may lose their markings when cooked, but they keep their shape, rarely splitting as lesser beans do. Here, creamy Ojo de Cabras steal the stage in a rustic soup with farro (a nutty old-world grain) and cabbage. And Sando gives the caramel-colored Yellow Indian Woman a Latin treatment with chorizo, cilantro and sour cream. Many dried-bean varieties are interchangeable in recipes, and all of them benefit from an overnight soak.

Click here for Heirloom Bean and Farro Soup with Savoy Cabbage

Click here for Heirloom Beans with Chorizo and Sour Cream.

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