Now we’re in the part of the list most “healthiest beans” articles quietly skip. Plain cooked soybeans carry the most protein of anything ranked here, a serious 16.9 grams, plus a field-leading 4.8 milligrams of iron and a 274.3 score, all per 100 grams. That’s not a nudge past the pantry beans. That’s a different weight class.
Simmer them into a Japanese-style nimono, fold them into a hearty stew, or blend them into a spread. They’re denser and richer than a standard pulse, so a smaller scoop goes further.
White Beans
Transparency note before the praise: the federal dataset doesn’t break out navy, Great Northern, or cannellini as separate beans. They’re all folded into one “white beans” bucket, so treat this as the whole white-bean family, not one specific variety.
As a group they’re a mineral powerhouse, topping the entire list on potassium at 497 milligrams, with a 222.6 score at 211 calories per 100 grams, measured from canned and reduced-sodium. Creamy, mild, endlessly useful. Smash cannellini into a Tuscan-style rosemary spread, or drop navy beans into a brothy soup with kale. This is the bean that makes cheap ingredients taste expensive.
Black Beans
If this were a fiber contest, we could stop right here. Black beans deliver the most fiber of anything on the list, a hefty 9.8 grams, next to a 218.5 score at 178 calories per 100 grams, measured from canned with fat. That fiber is a big reason a bowl of black beans and rice feels filling and steady instead of gone in twenty minutes.
Tacos, a smoky black bean soup, a burrito bowl with lime and cilantro. It’s the bean I reach for most, and the numbers say that instinct is fine.
Chickpeas
Hummus, falafel, the crunchy roasted snack you physically cannot stop eating. Chickpeas are the extrovert of the bean world, and they’ve got the numbers to back the confidence: a 217.1 score with a strong 162 micrograms of folate at 163 calories per 100 grams, measured from dried with no added fat.They also hold their shape better than almost anything else, which is why they survive a hot oven and a long stew without dissolving. Roast them crisp with smoked paprika, blend them into hummus, or drop them whole into a coconut chickpea curry.
Pinto Beans
The soul of a burrito and the reason refried beans exist. Pintos score 213.6 with 152 micrograms of folate at 191 calories per 100 grams, measured from dried with a little fat. Nothing here spikes and nothing’s weak, which is exactly why they’re the default bean in so many kitchens. Mash them with cumin for tacos, or simmer a pot borracho-style with onions and peppers.
Lentils
Not technically a bean to a botanist. Absolutely a bean to anyone standing in a kitchen, so they’re staying.
Here’s their case. Among the beans here that aren’t soy, lentils lead on iron at 3.3 milligrams, and they pull it off at just 115 calories, the lowest of anything ranked here, measured from dried with no added fat. Add 171 micrograms of folate and a 210.9 score and you’ve got the efficiency winner, big nutrition for a small calorie footprint.
Red lentils melt into a silky dal. French green lentils hold their shape for a warm salad with roasted vegetables and feta. Same aisle, two completely different textures.
Black-Eyed Peas
The good-luck bean. New Year’s Day, a pot of Hoppin’ John, the whole superstition. Their real headline is folate, 184 micrograms, one of the highest here, wrapped around a 205.0 score at 166 calories per 100 grams from dried. They cook fast and stay a little firm, so they shine in a cold marinated salad with diced tomato, red onion, and vinaigrette that only gets better the next day.
Kidney Beans
The classic chili bean, and also the one on this list that comes with a real safety asterisk when it’s raw or undercooked.
Kidney beans score 192.8 at 177 calories per 100 grams, measured from dried with fat added. Cooked properly they’re a workhorse. Raw or undercooked, they’re a different story, and this is the one safety fact I want everyone to walk away with.
The one bean warning worth knowing: Raw kidney beans carry a natural toxin called phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). Food-safety authorities including the FDA note that raw beans hold far more of it than fully boiled ones, and eating even a small handful of raw or undercooked beans can trigger nausea and vomiting within a few hours.
The fix is easy: give them a hard, rolling boil before you do anything else. And skip cooking dried kidney beans in a slow cooker on their own, because it may never get hot enough to knock the toxin out. Canned beans are already fully cooked, so none of this applies to them.
Once they’re properly cooked, load them into a three-bean chili or a rajma over rice and forget the drama entirely.
Split Peas
Bottom of the list, and I’ll defend them anyway. A score of 152.9 sounds like a loss until you remember these turn into dinner for about a dollar a bag. Measured from dried with a little fat, they run 168 calories per 100 grams and stick to your ribs.
They fall apart when you cook them. That’s the point. Simmer them with smoked paprika and a bay leaf, or push them into a thick dal over rice.
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Why beans make you gassy (and the actual fix)
Time for the question everyone’s too polite to ask out loud.
Beans are high in a fiber-type carb called GOS (galacto-oligosaccharides). Your small intestine can’t break it down, so it travels to your colon, where gut bacteria ferment it and produce gas. That’s the whole mechanism. It’s not a flaw in you, it’s chemistry.
The easiest fix costs nothing: drain and rinse your canned beans, and toss the soaking water from dried ones. Ditching that liquid carries off a meaningful share of the GOS, which is often enough to take the edge off. Building up your bean intake slowly helps too. If beans reliably wreck you no matter what, that’s worth asking your doctor about rather than something a food article should diagnose.
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Edamame
Yep. The bar snack. The thing you squeeze out of the pod and eat by the fistful is the healthiest bean on this entire board.
Edamame tops the ranking at 287.8, clear of every classic pantry bean, and its standout number is folate at a huge 286 micrograms, far above the rest of the field. All that for 140 calories per 100 grams cooked.
And you basically can’t overthink it. Steam the pods, hit them with flaky salt, eat. Or shell them into a grain bowl, a stir-fry, or a bright edamame and mint smash on toast.
The tastiest bean to eat mindlessly is also the one that wins on paper. That almost never happens.
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I left out a few beans that I don't eat myself. After all, this blog is a reference that I hope will be around when I forget these details. I did edit the original article.
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Written bySarah Rose Levy Covering vegetarian food, restaurants, and grocery finds across the U.S.
And an amazing source of protein if you're avoiding meat for reasons of diet or expense!
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