Several years ago, I discovered using bean flour. It sounds rather strange, I know, but once you get used to using it, you will find many creative uses for it.
Bean flour can be obtained many different ways. You can find it at a natural food store, order it from Amazon, order it from Azure Standard, or you can even mill your own. Of course, milling your own, is by far the most cost effective way, if you already own a grain mill. My mill attachment is on a Champion and it is capable of milling beans, so this is what I use. I have also bought it from Azure Standard, as part of my monthly co-op order. Whether you are buying dried beans and grinding them or buying the flour already ground, it is a staple that I keep on hand.
I store my flour in the refrigerator, just to prolong the life of it and keep it fresh.
If you grind up a white type of bean (small navy or lima), you will get a white looking flour. This flour is excellent for thickening soups or making your own "cream" soups. I will be sharing a recipe next week with you on making a Chicken/Rice Crockpot Soup and using the bean flour as the thickener. It is excellent for this purpose. You can also make up any "cream" soup using the white bean flour. Here is the recipe:
- 2 cups stock (this can be chicken, vegetable, or beef stock)
- 1/3 cup white bean flour
Place stock in saucepan and add in bean flour, mixing with a wisk. Simmer on low until thickened. Makes the equivalent of 2 cans of cream soup. Can be used right away or can be cooled and refrigerated and used in any recipe calling for "cream of" soup.
If you use chicken stock, this will be comparable to Cream of Chicken Soup.
If you are needing Cream of Mushroom, you can use beef stock and add in small pieces of mushrooms.
For any other cream soup, like Cream of Celery, you can use vegetable or chicken stock and add in small pieces of diced celery.
It is very versatile and can be switched up according to your tastes and need.
Just recently I have also discovered using the dried pinto bean, also. These can be also ground into flour and used as instant refried beans. I found this recipe in the Country Beans cookbook. You can use the beans in a one to one ratio, but this will produce a thicker consistency. I use this recipe:
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 cup pinto bean flour
Bring water to a boil and whisk in bean flour. Cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring.
This recipe can be used in place of your "canned refried beans" that you buy in the store. You can use it for burritos, or taco dips (with taco seasoning) or wherever it calls for refried beans.
If you have questions about using bean flour, please let me know. In the next several weeks, I will be sharing some recipes and tips that specifically use beans and bean flour. I hope that you will be inspired to try these, as they are an excellent way to stretch your grocery dollars!
Until next time, Julie
Julie is Merissa's mom and she's committed to living a frugal and simple lifestyle. Julie grows her own herbs in her garden and enjoys making things at home. You can now find her home remedies and ideas here at Little House Living.
Disclaimer: This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
YAY!! i use mine to make the rue for mac and cheese too! Kiddos never know!
Awesome post! Thanks! Finding a substitute for canned refried beans was on my to-do list =)
Thank you for this post. This information will be helpful in my gluten free cooking since I can’t just use a normal canned cream soup. I’ll have to admit the instant refried beans recipe also has me intrigued. Thanks again.
So interesting….never heard of this. will try it for sure. thanks
I happened to be soaking beans to cook when I read this so I held some back when I started cooking them. I’ll dehydrate them and try the instant beans – as they said way back when I was young… Cool beans!
Thanks for posting this idea.
Great post! I will try this ASAP! We eat cooked beans quite often. I hadn’t even considered grinding them into flour. I think my Vitamix (dry blade) could handle this. Thanks so much for the idea!
So, when you soak dried beans you have to make sure you rinse them well before cooking to reduce the incidence of …well… what beans are famous for. Then you cook them for an hour, and again rinse to get rid of that chemical that causes …ahem. Kidney beans are toxic before they are cooked. This is the extent of what I was taught on this subject. So where does bean flour fall in this line of thought? Can it be toxic if not handled properly? Does it cause flatulence? Does it taste really … beany? Help.
I am going to try and answer a few questions. First off, I am excited to see several of you trying this out or using a version of this. It is a great alternative to what is in canned soups from the store and being able to use “good” ingredients. I would be anxious to hear what you think, if you give this a try. Also, I forgot to mention that when I have made the refried beans, after they are finished simmering, I have added in several spices to taste. This, of course, is your own preference, but I have actually even used taco seasoning in it and used it as a basis for a taco dip. It was really good that way. So, be creative with the spices and what your family enjoys. I have never used kidney beans to grind into flour, so I am not sure on those. I have only used white beans (like great northerns) for the white sauce and the pinto beans for the refried substitute. I have stored those flours in the refrigerator for several months at a time without problems. I am sure that nutriotion wise, it is probably better to grind and use right away, but that always isn’t reality for me. If you are using dried beans in recipes (whole), it is always better to do some type of soaking of them. The water that you are soaking them in should be disguarded and the beans should be rinsed. This will help with the “gas” problem of the beans. One more thing on the bean flours, I have used the white bean flour in soups for a couple years now and no one would know, unless I have told them. There is no “beany” taste to them and they produce a nice, smooth texture. I have never had a soup or gravy turn out lumpy when using the bean flour. Hope that this answers some of the questions. There will be more articles on beans this month and recipes, so be looking out for those. Enjoy!
So as RG was asking: is there any prep needed before you use the white beans to make flour? A few weeks ago I used my Azure Standard white beans to make a pizza (after I gound them in the kitchen whiz), on a cast iron pancake griidle. We so enjoyed them, however, the next day three of the seven of us had problems. And I haven’t used the flour since. I’m wondering do I first soak then reDRY the beans, or leave the bean flour in the fridge a while before using it?
Has anyone tried using tomatoe juice for cream of tomatoe soup? Did it work?
When I cook beans, I let them soak for a day or more to remove impurities. When you make bean flour, do you soak or rinse them before grinding the beans? How “clean” are they?
Ashley,
I have never soaked, then dried, then grind the beans. The beans that I use to make into flour, I buy organic, so I don’t worry about going through the cleaning process with them. I would think if you are using regular beans, it would be ok to soak them and rinse them thoroughly. You would have to dry them completely either by air drying or a dehydrator, I think, to get them back into a state where you could grind them and obtain a flour from them. I wouldn’t want to put them through a grinder with any moisture left in them. It would gum up your grinder.
Hi. Thank you for sharing. I was wondering if I could use bean flour by itself or alongside any other grain or seed, ground and mixed together to make some sort of cereal like meal for my 1 year old. Do you have any ideas on this? Please let me know if you do. I would be truly grateful as I’m trying to get my baby to eat vegetable protein.
Hi there! I just stumbled upon your blog when I was looking up bean flours. I don’t have anything like a Mill attachment I could use to make my own flour, but I do have a food processor that lets me make yummy almond flour. If I dried the beans and put them in the food processor, do you think I would still end up with a flour-like consistency?
It should, I just use a good decent blender and that gives me a good consistency with both beans and rice flowers. If I need it to be finer, I can use a mortar and pestle for the final grind. I remember my mother used to buy bean and exotic grain flours and I was glad to find that I could use my blender for use of making flour from my favorite grains and beans.
I just ground some pinto bean flour and want to know if anyone has ever tried using it to make tortillas for burritos. I buy to high fiber ones at the store and wondered how they get the fiber content so high.
I made the instant refried beans and I liked it, especially with taco seasonings. I didn’t like the grey pastey color before the spices. And it was nice to have the beans ready so fast! Thank you for the recipe!
Looking forward to it!
Have you ever tried making bean flour out of pinto beans that have been in storage for a long time? Old beans do not get soft enough for soups, etc so I was wondering if you could still grind them for flour?
Thank you! I need refried beans soon but don’t have any, so I was wondering if I could blend up some beans and use bean flour. I’ll never need to buy refried beans again now! I’m not good at planning ahead enough to make normal beans.
Intriguing! Is its use limited to savory items or have you tried it with sweeter recipes as well? I’ve read about using crushed navy beans in cupcakes and am wondering if this would work in a variety of applications..
Cheryl
http://www.thestylistquo.com
No I think you could use it in sweeter items as well depending on the item and how much of the bean flour you used in it (so it didn’t effect the flavor too much).