Recipes to celebrate the heartiness of white beans

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bean varieties are staggering, and their nomenclature can be confusing. For example, white beans are also called navy beans—a term not related to the colour navy but because the US Navy served these beans to their sailors since the mid-1800s.

You may or may not have bought white beans and cooked with them, but you’ve definitely eaten them. These are the beans used in canned baked beans, a staple of hotel breakfast buffets worldwide due to their appeal and popularity. While I’ve never been a fan of the overly sweet baked beans from a can, I am a fan of the beans themselves.

White beans cook faster than most other beans. Their mild, neutral flavour makes them versatile in a variety of dishes. During my salad workshops, a white bean salad with rocket and bell peppers in Italian dressing was a staple.

The white beans contrasted beautifully with the greens, reds, and oranges, and their ability to soak up the dressing made them a delight to bite into. Almost everyone would ask me where I sourced the beans, as they had never cooked with them before. I buy my white beans from a local Mangaluru store.

Known as tingalavare in Kannada and tingalavaro in Konkani, these beans are a delicacy in Konkani Saraswat households. Gashi or gassi, a curry from this cuisine, features tamarind, coconut, red chillies, and garlic ground into a paste in which the cooked beans are simmered. White beans are the perfect canvas to absorb these rich, aromatic flavours.