I’m trying some new beans for our dinner tonight — Anasazi, a type of white bean. According to Walton Feed,
The anasazi is a white bean with a maroon patern and is a cousin to the pinto bean. They have a flavorful, sweet taste and are easier to digest and therefore cause less gas than the other beans. Interestingly, the anasazi bean only has 25% of the gas producing properties of the pinto which falls roughly in the middle of the gas producing scale. Like the other beans, they rehydrate to three times their size but cook in less time than similar beans their size. Anasazi beans can be substituted for pinto or red kidney beans in your favorite dishes.”
I’ve been looking for Anasazi beans without success for a few months and found them yesterday in the bulk section of the grocery store. They reportedly take only 50 to 60 minutes to cook after soaking, making them very convenient. For dinner tonight, I am planning on a beef stew with Anasazi beans and vegetables that I’ll serve over brown basmati rice. It is summer here, but our evenings are so cool and breezy most of the time that a warm stew feels good to eat.
Related Post: How to Cook Dry Beans
Jami – I have not officially blogged about it yet...
I have seen these beans from time to time at the farmers market and wondered about them. You’ll have to tell us how they taste.
Tracy
We used to cook these and grow them when I worked for the state of Tennessee as a historical interpreter. We also grew some beans called rattlesnake beans ! Guess what they looked like
I really like to grow and use heirloom and ancient varieties of vegetables. In many cases, they are very much different from our newer varieties. Let us know how you liked your beans!
How were they Wardeh??
They were good! Good, good, good!
Sylvia, you have such an interesting history! About those rattlesnake beans… I can guess what they look like, but how do they taste????
Well, I’ve lived a long time, its about time I started getting interesting, don’t you think?;)
They taste like pintos. Actually they look a lot like pintos, they are a variety of pinto. The name actually comes from the sound they make in their dried shells. I have been out in the garden and everything was quiet… hot and quiet…… and suddenly one of those pods will snap a little and the beans will rattle around in it and for a brief moment my heart flutters.
Most people pick them when they are young and tender. Like most beans they are delicious fresh, but I always let some dry on the plants in late summer and that’s why they are hanging around out there in the garden making snake noises.
No kidding! I think my heart would flutter, too, if I heard that sound
That would be a really fun bean to grow. I think the kids would like it. They would think it is the coolest thing to have a garden full of rattlesnake beans!
The Anasazi beans were really similar to pintos, too.