Beans - Which do I choose?

There are so many different kinds, which have higher nutrition? Which tastes better? When do you use which bean? I had trouble finding an all-inclusive chart that compared the nutritional values and properties of all the different types of beans, so I had to go the extra mile and research them one by one. You can thank me with cookies and ice cream. Oh wait, this is a health blog, um, nevermind.

What I found was that most beans are extremely similar in nutritional value such as protein, fiber, iron, etc. The biggest difference is likely in the levels of antioxidants found in various beans. When researchers analyzed different types of beans, they found that, the darker the bean’s seed coat, the higher its level of antioxidant activity. Gram for gram, black beans were found to have the most antioxidant activity, followed in descending order by red, brown, yellow, and white beans.

Various Uses
Besides soup, what can you do with beans? I've tossed garbanzo and black beans into my salad. When mixed with other salad fixings like cheese, corn and olives, it tastes really good. The more variety is in the salad, the tastier it is. You can make an entire, well-balanced meal out of it.

Pinto and black beans can be blended and seasoned into a dip.

Garbanzo beans can be blended into a paste and seasoned into hummus (another type of dip).

Black and red beans can be blended into a paste, sweetened, and wrapped into pastries.

Crumbled red kidney beans give a meaty flavor and texture to lasagna.

For a huge collection of bean recipes, check out AllRecipes.com. I like this site because users rate the recipes and you can see which ones are better than others. Commenters also leave suggestions on altering or improving the recipes. Great place to try new things.