
You may have seen piles of colorful beans at your local farmers’ market. Or perhaps you’ve stopped to gawk at the natural-foods store’s rows of bulk bins filled with a mind—boggling array of beans. Go ahead and give them a try. You can cook any variety of bean with our basic cooking method (see Pot of Beans). Then you can use them in any recipe calling for cooked or canned beans.
A pound of dried beans (about 2 cups) will yield 5 to 6 cups cooked beans.
One 19-ounce can yields about 2 cups cooked beans; a 15-ounce can, about 1 1/2 cups.