From salads to brownies, smart, low-effort ways to turn pantry black beans into meals, snacks and sweets

Published May 5, 2026 12:21PM (EDT)

Oven-baked black bean tacos (Cavan Images / Dorene Hookey / Getty Images)

There’s a certain genre of pantry items that feels, if not immortal, then at least immune to the normal rules of time. Canned beans fall squarely into that category. They sit there — stacked, slightly dusty, always in greater quantity than you remember buying — waiting for a moment that never quite arrives.

Which is how you ended up with five cans of beans and no idea how to use them.

Lately, beans have gotten a bit of a rebrand. “ Fibermaxxing ” is all the rage these days, and black beans are the poster child of the trend. But long before they were algorithmically optimized, they were just — useful. Cheap, filling, endlessly adaptable.…