Heart-Healthy Bean Recipes

Find delicious heart-healthy bean recipes, from the food and nutrition experts at EatingWell.

Staff Picks

Tomato, Cucumber & White-Bean Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

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This no-cook bean salad is a delicious way to use summer's best cherry or grape tomatoes and juicy cucumbers for a light dinner or lunch. Fresh basil elevates an easy vinaigrette recipe that dresses up this simple salad into something extraordinary.
By Carolyn Casner

White Bean & Veggie Salad

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This meatless main-dish salad combines creamy, satisfying white beans and avocado. Try mixing it up with different seasonal vegetables.
By Katie Webster

No-Cook Black Bean Salad

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A classic black bean salad is a must for picnics and potlucks. This vegan version gets its creaminess from blended avocado. Any mix of salad greens will work well, but try arugula if you want to give this hearty salad a peppery kick.
By Hilary Meyer

Vegetable Weight-Loss Soup

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A big bowl of this veggie-packed minestrone will leave you satisfied for hours without consuming a lot of calories, which is helpful when trying to lose weight. Plus, it's an easy way to boost your vegetable servings for the day—something all of us could benefit from. Top with a dollop of pesto before devouring this delicious vegetable soup and consider serving with a hunk of toasted whole-wheat bread to help round out the meal.
By Hilary Meyer

Mashed Chickpea Salad with Dill & Capers

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This creamy yet light vegan salad is full of bright, herby goodness. On its own, it's great to serve alongside a sandwich or veggie burger in place of potato salad or coleslaw. You can also make it into a light lunch by adding a handful of arugula to enjoy it as a green salad. Double the recipe and refrigerate to have on hand throughout the week.
By Carolyn Casner

Slow-Cooker Vegetable Soup

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Make a big batch of low-calorie veggie-packed soup with ease in this load-and-go crock pot recipe. After simmering away in the slow cooker, portion it into individual serving containers and store in the fridge or freezer for fast, healthy lunches or an easy, satisfying snack. This weight-loss vegetable soup fills you up without a lot of calories, plus it's an easy way to eat more vegetables.

Slow-Cooker Chicken & White Bean Stew

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This load-and-go slow-cooker chicken recipe is perfect for a busy weeknight dinner. Serve this Tuscan-inspired dish with crusty bread, a glass of Chianti and a salad.
By Adam Dolge

Chickpea, Artichoke & Avocado Salad with Apple-Cider Dressing

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This delicious 400-calorie salad is a helpful tool for weight loss because it provides a good balance of fiber, protein and healthy fats from loads of veggies and beans, all tossed in a tangy apple-cider vinaigrette. To meal-prep these for lunch throughout the week, pack the dressing and the salad separately and make sure your veggies are thoroughly dried before packing them together.
By Hilary Meyer

Quinoa Chickpea Salad with Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Dressing

This hearty vegan salad is loaded with plant-based power ingredients: chickpeas, quinoa and hummus. We love the crunch of the sunflower seeds and the unexpected flavor of roasted peppers.
By Katie Webster

Spinach Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, White Beans & Basil

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Roasted sweet potatoes are paired with spinach, cabbage and white beans and tossed together with a bright basil dressing in this healthy main dish salad.
By Carolyn Casner

Bean & Barley Soup

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This hearty bean and barley soup tastes like it has simmered for hours, but actually it's quite quick to throw together. Plus this recipe for healthy bean and barley soup freezes beautifully. If you have cooked barley on hand, omit the quick-cooking barley and stir in 1 1/2 cups cooked barley along with the broth in Step 2.
By David Bonom

Tuscan White Bean Soup

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A pound of dried beans is the inexpensive foundation for this simple, hearty meal. Serve it with slices of whole-wheat bread or a side salad for a complete and satisfying lunch or dinner.
By Lauren Grant
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Inspiration and Ideas

Healthy Black Bean Soup Recipes & Black Bean Chili Recipes
Delicious recipes for black bean soup and black bean chili.Download a Free Healthy Recipe Cookbook for Chili, Soups and Stews!Watch Video
Herb Marinated Beans
These marinated beans are herbaceous and bright thanks to fresh dill, oregano, garlic and lemon juice. Use these versatile marinated beans on a salad, in a wrap or over a grain bowl.
Couscous & Chickpea Salad
Falafel Burgers
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Bean & Beef Taco Soup
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This taco soup is filled with quintessential taco ingredients and flavors--from two types of hearty beans, to corn and ground beef--but it's the toppings that really make this soup stand out. Better yet, this healthy soup is easy to make and leftovers freeze beautifully for later.

All Heart-Healthy Bean Recipes

Black Bean Soup

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This is a zippy Southwestern-flavored black bean soup. We make it with canned beans so it comes together in minutes. If you have leftovers, pack them up in individual serving containers for lunch the next day.
By EatingWell Test Kitchen

Gbegiri Soup (Honey Bean Soup)

Also known as ewa-olyin in the language of Nigeria's Yoruba people, which translates to "beans naturally coated with honey," honey beans, native to Nigeria, indeed have a hint of sweetness. They form the base of this popular Yoruba soup. Optional crayfish powder adds a smoky-sweet pleasantly fishy flavor.
By Simileoluwa Adebajo

Soup Beans

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Like poor people everywhere, mountain people in the South thrived for centuries on food that was indigenous, inexpensive and healthful. These days “soup beans” speak instant comfort to anyone who had familial connections from Appalachia, where every garden produced shelling beans that could be eaten fresh or grown to maturity for dry beans. Serve this thick, stew-like soup with cornbread, pickle relish and diced sweet onion.
By Sarah Fritschner

Seasoned Black-Eyed Peas

To infuse peas with flavor, simmer them with dried spices, which pack a more intense punch than fresh. Smoked paprika delivers the essence of ham hocks or bacon while keeping this classic side dish vegan.
By Genevieve Ko

Chicken & White Bean Salad

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Zucchini and celery give this chicken-and-bean salad a nice crunch. We like serving it over a bed of slightly bitter escarole and radicchio, but any type of salad greens will work. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.
By EatingWell Test Kitchen

Super-Green Edamame Salad

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Avocado, fresh chives and spinach are blended right into the creamy, bright-green dressing in this healthy edamame salad recipe. Pink beans are popular in the Caribbean, but you can substitute pinto beans or light red kidney beans if you can't find them.
By Katie Webster

Basic Mashed Black Beans

These simple mashed black beans can be used a filling in chiles rellenos or served on its own for a tasty side dish.
By Carolyn Malcoun

Linguica, Kale & Red Bean Soup

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This vegetable-packed soup recipe is inspired by caldo verde, a Portuguese soup made with kale, potatoes and linguica sausage. We added protein-rich kidney beans, tomatoes and carrots to make it more substantial. If you can't find linguica, andouille sausage or chorizo makes a delicious substitute.
By Bruce Aidells

Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

Packed with protein and fiber, this soup doesn't need meat to be satisfying. Soaking and cooking the beans yourself, rather than opening a can, ensures you'll have wonderful flavor and texture. (And the slow cooker does most of the work!)
By Diabetic Living Magazine

Sopa Tarasca

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This famous soup from the state of Michoacán in Western Mexico is often made with a base of pureed beans along with tomatoes and dried chiles, which bring a lot of the character to the dish. Here we use ancho chiles, which are sweet, earthy and relatively mild. You could also use pasillas, which have a heat level similar to anchos--or, if you like it hot, gaujillos, which also bring some smoky notes to the pot.
By Lisa Holderness Brown

Edamame Falafel with Lemon Aioli

A twist on the classic chickpea falafel, these tasty edamame falafels will not disappoint!
By Diabetic Living Magazine

Southwestern Chicken & Black Bean Salad

No cooking necessary and ready in just 25 minutes, this Southwestern-inspired recipe is a great choice for a quick lunch or dinner. Don't have leftover chicken? No problem--use turkey!
By Diabetic Living Magazine

Pumpkin & Black Bean Soup

This quick and easy vegan pumpkin black bean soup is filled with veggies. Convenient canned pumpkin, beans and coconut milk flavored with curry make it a hearty fall meal.
By Julia Levy

Cuban Black Bean Soup

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Unlike many black bean soups, this one is pepper-packed and leaves the beans intact for a more interesting texture. It's equally delicious served on its own or over rice.
By Lisa Holderness Brown

Simply French Green Beans

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Thin green beans cook quickly, so rinsing them with cold water (or putting them into an ice water bath) is important if you want to keep them crisp. The beans in this side dish recipe take only 20 minutes to prepare, but taste their best after a couple hours in the fridge where they soak up the flavor of the shallot-thyme mixture.
By Diabetic Living Magazine

Cauliflower & White Bean Soup with Herb Croutons

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Pureed cauliflower lends a creamy, silky texture to this vegetarian white bean soup without using a drop of dairy.
By Adam Dolge

Crunchy Mexican Salad with Spicy Cilantro Vinaigrette

A spicy cilantro vinaigrette gives this black bean salad Mexican flair. We used the beans for protein, but if you have cooked chicken on hand, you can use that instead. Also, if you have it, finish the salad with a quarter of an avocado for a boost of healthy fats.
By Lauren Grant

Green Beans with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

A much healthier take on the old-fashioned green bean casserole, this version thankfully skips the canned soup and fried onions! Fresh green beans are cooked until crisp-tender and topped with a garlicky-thyme mushroom sauce, shallots and crumbled chèvre.
By Diabetic Living Magazine

Vegetarian Sliders with Black Beans, Chard & Poblanos

These vegetarian sliders are filling, flavorful and make for a great protein-packed main dish. Take your time patting the beans dry: it keeps the sliders from falling apart. You can make 8 larger patties, to fit regular-size buns, but try to keep them about 1/2 inch thick so they'll heat through under the broiler without burning. 
By Liana Krissoff

Slow-Cooked Baked Beans with Bacon

It's easy to purchase baked beans in a can, but making your own in the slow cooker results in a rich and deliciously flavored side dish that you'll feel better about serving to guests.
By Diabetic Living Magazine

Bean Salad with Charred Lemons

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Creamy avocado, salty feta cheese and sweet-bitter caramelized lemon slices make this vegetarian bean salad recipe a standout. Using different colors, sizes and shapes of beans makes this salad extra special. But any bean that interests you, even canned, will work.
By Nora Singley

Basic Black Beans

Master the technique of cooking dried beans with this basic recipe. The cooking time will vary based on the age and size of the beans, so begin to check for tenderness after 1 1/2 hours and continue cooking until the beans are tender.
By Lauren Grant

Sautéed Green Beans with Tomatoes, Mushrooms & Garlic

This versatile and easy side dish is a tasty way to showcase green beans. We boil the beans briefly before sautéing for perfectly crisp-tender vegetables that don't get mushy.
By Betsy Andrews

Southern Black-Eyed Pea Salad

Black-eyed peas boost the fiber in this quick vegetable side salad. Serve this diabetic-friendly salad with grilled meats or chicken.
By Diabetic Living Magazine
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