Bean bread is another way to enjoy different kinds of beans and reap their nutritional benefits. This bean bread makes great avocado toast along with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Bean Bread
Have you ever heard of using beans as a base for bread? Well you have now! The idea is a little unusual because we typically don’t think of beans as a flour to make bread. When I first thought about it, I was skeptical. But after experimenting with different types of beans and grinding them into flour using my home mill, it’s pretty good. I have it in the morning as toast, with olive oil, avocado, pepper and some flaky salt. It’s nutritious and protein rich. Plus, I can eat this bread after a workout and feel good about it.
Bean bread is not only a nutritious and protein-packed alternative to traditional bread, but it’s also a great way to use up any excess beans you have in your pantry. I’ve tried with different types of beans such as cannelini, black, and navy beans, and they all work great. In fact, in this post, I use a combination of white navy beans and black beans. Below I’ll share my simple process for making bean bread at home.
Black Bean Bread
Black beans are one of my favorite beans, and they make great bread. A little bit of black bean flour will change the color of the resulting bread. I recommend using black beans in your bread if possible. If not, other beans will work fine. Here I show a bean bread from a mix of navy and black beans.
Is Bean Bread Gluten Free?
Beans do not contain gluten. Therefore, as long as you don’t add any ingredient containing gluten, bean bread will be gluten free.
How to Make Bean Bread
To make bean bread, the main thing you need is bean flour. You can make this on your own using a Nutrimill. See here for a post on milling millet grain.
Bean Bread Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make the bread:
- Bean flour (can combine different types of beans – here I combine navy and black)
- Salt for flavor
- Baking powder (to lighten the bread)
- Tomatoes liquefied in blender (optional)
- Water
Bean Bread Recipe
The main thing is to make the bean flour. You can do this using a home mill (see here for a review of the Nutrimill Harvest Grain). This will produce the best results. You can mill the beans fresh before you make the recipe, which maximizes the nutritional benefit. Also, you can use whatever beans you happen to have in your pantry. I would recommend getting a home mill – I use my home mill every week (plus I have one at my job). You can mill lentils, chickpeas, beans, wheat, split peas, etc.
Alternatively, you can try using a high speed blender to grind the beans, and then pass them through a fine mesh sieve to get your flour (see more about using the blender to make flour). Or you can just buy bean flour (note that I am not talking about chickpea/garbanzo bean flour).
Mix all the dry ingredients, i.e. bean flour, salt, and baking powder, in a large mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients, i.e. water and liquefied tomatoes, and mix the batter well. Note that it will be a batter and not a dough. I would recommed using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon for mixing this wet batter.
Pour batter into a greased pan lined with parchment paper. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to make sure the batter spreads out evenly in the pan. Bake in a 350 deg oven for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let rest on wire rack for ten minutes when done baking.
Eating the Legume Bread
After the bread has rested 10 minutes, it is ready to eat. Cut into squares and enjoy your low carb, high protein, gluten free bread. Cut your square in half horizontally, and toast both pieces. Top your toast with some olive oil, pepper, avocado, and flaky salt.
Bean Bread
Equipment
- 1 oven
- 1 Baking pan
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups white bean flour
- 1 cup black bean flour you can use all the same type of bean flour if you only have one type
- 1 cup tomatoes (liquefied in blender) preferably peeled fresh roma tomatoes that you have blended, but other varieties or canned will work. Just make sure they are liquefied2
- 2 cups water
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 deg.
- Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Add liquefied tomatoes and water and mix well. Let batter sit for ten minutes.
- Line baking pan with greased parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper, heavily grease the pan. Pour batter into pan.
- Put into oven and bake for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through. Bake until internal temp reaches 180 deg, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
- Let rest for ten minutes on a wire rack.
