While I much prefer the flavor and texture of freshly cooked dried beans, there’s not always the time or wherewithal to soak and simmer a batch. (Though do remember that soaked beans can be stored in the freezer, ready to cook. Do it today and thank yourself later!) For those instances, canned beans can save the day, hence why I always have a couple cans of black beans and chickpeas squirreled away in the pantry.

Here’s the deal with canned beans. It’s an industrial process. At the factory, they are sorted, hot soaked, sealed into their cans with water laced with calcium chloride, a firming agent, then pressure cooked until tender. Even cooking is guaranteed, but the beans lack the flavor and tender, creamy texture of slowly simmered home-cooked beans.

You can think of canned beans, then, as a blank slate to improve upon. The simplest way to do that is to simmer them in soups, stews and braises, in which the beans soften and eventually absorb the broth’s flavors. We’ve got heaps of those recipes to choose from. One of my favorites is Tuscan Tomato-Pancetta Chickpea Stew, which I douse in hot sauce and swipe up with crusty bread. I also love this bold-flavored skillet supper of Roman Beans with Pancetta and Seared Radicchio. The sweetness and starchiness of the beans tempers the bitterness of the radicchio. My one change to the recipe is adding a handful of crumbled Gorgonzola.

Microwaving is one of the best ways to improve canned beans. The high-tech cooking method heats from the center outwards, meaning the beans will suck flavors inwards rather than waiting for them to penetrate the semi-impermeable skin. We use this technique a lot for quick, hearty salads like this simple Greek Bean Salad or Turkish White Bean Salad, two recipes that nuke the beans to infuse them with flavor.

When I want something heartier, I like our technique of treating beans like meat and browning them in a hot skillet. With enough heat and fat, starchy beans crisp around the edges—as they break apart a bit—and grow even creamier. It makes for a quick skillet supper to pile onto garlicky bruschetta, fluffy rice or buttered noodles. Try these Fried White Beans with Bacon, Garlic and Spinach or Smashed Chickpeas with Lemon and Scallions.

The next logical step after smashing is turning canned beans into a puree, which is what I do with them most often. Refried beans are terrific over rice with salsa and guacamole, or spooned into quesadillas and quick burritos. This is the simplest version that we’ve done, a good back pocket recipe to master (feel free to swap out your favorite chili powder for the spice mix). I’ll often throw a handful of cilantro stems or leaves into the blender along with the beans. The method in this recipe takes a little more effort, but I think it’s well worth it.

Enfrijoladas is effectively refried beans turned into a sauce for dousing corn tortillas, like a reverse quesadilla. In my book, it’s about the best dish you can make with canned black beans, especially if you can find some mild, salty cotija cheese to crumble on top of it.

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Matthew Card

Matthew Card is Milk Street’s Creative Director for Recipes and Products, resident coffee geek, knife collector and equipment junkie. He has 25-plus years of professional cooking, recipe development, food writing and teaching under his belt. When he’s not in the Milk Street kitchen or on the road hunting for new recipes and ideas, Matthew lives with his family in Canberra, Australia, where he does his best to dodge kangaroos on his mountain bike and is learning to love Vegemite.