How to Cook Tepary Beans

Tepary : Indigenous Climate-Smart Beans

Tepary beans have been grown for thousands of years in North America. The beans have been found in archeological sites dating back 2,500 years old in Tehuacán Valley of Mexico and 1,000 years in the ancestral homelands of the Hohokam people in Arizona. There’s a vast world of Tepary beans out there. Some are reminiscent of little speckled eggs while others look like tiny rocks [Check out Native Seeds SEARCH to see how different they all are]. The people with some of the closest ties to Tepary beans are the Tohono O’odham tribe, whose homeland spans across the Sonoran desert in Arizona and Mexico.

We grow 2 different kinds of Tepary beans that were introduced to me by Mike Reeske (the same guy who provided seed for Southwest Gold and Tigers Eye beans). If you look at them, the Tan and Brown Teparies have 2 distinct shapes. The Tan is flat (a more typical Tepary shape) and the Brown has more rounded edges like a common bean. In digging deeper into Tepary beans, I learned that the Tan Tepary is actually known as S’oam Pawi or W'pegi bawi and is from Menagers Dam, a Tohono O'odham community east of Organ Pipe National Monument on the Arizona - Mexico border. The Brown Tepary is a field cross that came out of Mike’s crop of Black Tepary beans. He saved this cross and replanted them year after year, selecting them for their rich flavor.

In the upcoming growing season, we will continue to grow the Tan Tepary and are adding a White Sonoran Tepary (our adventure to find another high yielding white bean that tastes great!), but will not be growing more of the Dark Brown Tepary. There are 45 bags of these beans available. The decision was based on productive capacity of the bean and choosing a flavor we liked better.

Tepary beans are native to the desert. They thrive under water-stressed conditions and will be more productive if they experience drought as the plants mature. Think of the desert - it’s a harsh environment with limited and sporadic rain events, dry soils, and intense heat. These beans were scattered at the mouths of arroyos (seasonal creek beds that flood during monsoon rains) at the start of the summer monsoon season where water diversions were set up to irrigate the beans. They develop deep roots to take up any bit of water in the soil and are able to find water deeper underground than common bean varieties can. These bean plants have thin leaves that come to strong points compared to the broad leaves of other beans. Their pods are small and flat and very full of beans.

According to Tohono O’odham legend, White Tepary beans were scattered across the night sky to create the Milky Way.

For a time, these beans were grown all across the Midwest and Southwest, used as both a bean crop to harvest and as a cover crop to improve soil health. In 1918, California had 17,000 acres of Tepary beans in production. When public preference shifted towards other beans (like Lima beans!), their production plummeted. Cultural production of Tepary beans by the Tohono O’odham fell again during WWII when tribe members joined the military and also started working on cotton plantations. But, these beans are coming back as an important traditional foodway based on cultural importance and their incredible health benefits. There was a moment this winter when we experienced a surge in people buying our Tepary beans and in talking to companies that sell Tepary bean seed, they experienced it too! I'm still unsure what drove their popularity this winter.

One of the really special traits of Tepary beans is that these beans can move into the “seed setting” stage (where they start to produce the actual beans) at temperatures over 105 degrees. Other beans are generally unable to do so at temperatures above 80-85 degrees (plants become too stressed and the flowers they develop will die and not produce seed). These characteristics make these beans a perfect example of climate-smart eating. If we want to make meaningful and positive climate impacts with the food we eat, we have to look at crops, like Tepary beans, that are able to thrive in conditions that others can't and also provide ecological services like improving soil health and fixing nitrogen.

We were originally drawn to growing Tepary beans during a winter with little rainfall. We were wondering how much of our acreage we’d have enough water to actually irrigate come the summer. If the last 6 years have taught us anything, having a forward-thinking plan for crop production under increasingly harsh growing conditions is absolutely necessary for survival. And Tepary beans fit into this plan for our farm. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Sonoran White Tepary beans grow and if they can be another high producing, delicious bean on the farm.

Nutritionally, Tepary beans are higher in fiber and protein than other beans and have a low glycemic index. According to Ramona Farms (a Native source for Tepary Beans), there’s 23 grams of protein, 56 grams of fiber, and 70% of your daily calcium, and 150% of your daily iron in half a cup of these dry beans. Comparatively, the same amount of black beans have 8 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, 3% of daily calcium, and 10% daily iron. While I wouldn't say that Tepary beans are healthier than other beans, they definitely are much more nutrient dense - a real bang for your buck!

My foolproof way for cooking Tepary beans is to use my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker and cook them for 43 minutes on high pressure. Let it naturally release and you're set. Make sure to add some salt to the beans before you turn the pressure cooker on. If I were to cook them on the stove, I would probably soak them overnight. The beans are quite dense and need more time to cook than our other beans even though they are so small!

I make Tepary beans when I want to have a bean to use in a multitude of ways throughout the week or when I know I want to have various salads for lunch. Especially since I cook them in the pressure cooker, they are a super easy addition to many meals. They also heat up really nice and don't fall apart easily! They have a creamy interior but won't turn to mush.

Since there aren't many Tepary Bean specific recipes out there, I look for recipes that use green, brown, or French lentils (generally not red - they are too mushy) or chickpeas as dinner potentials for these beans. If the recipe calls for cooking the lentils in the sauce you make, don't do that with the Tepary beans. Cook them first and then add them to the dish.

Tepary beans also make nice hummus if you want to swap those in for chickpeas.

The majority of this week's recipes come from Oaktown Spice Shop here in CA. They have sold our Piment d'Ville for many many years and have a fun mix of recipes on their site. I think specialty spice companies good places to find interesting recipes that feature wide ranging ingredients.

It's Salad and Bowl Week

salsa macha tepary rice bowl

Salsa Macha (Chickpea) Rice Bowl After a few weeks of many warm bean stews and braised bean dishes, we made these Salsa Macha Tepary Rice Bowls. It was a welcome shift to some fresh vegetables. While the recipe calls for chickpeas, Tepary beans worked as a very easy replacement. I used Sauce Everywhere's Ají Crisp made with our Sugar Rush Peach chiles instead of making my own salsa macha. The technique of frying the beans in salsa macha is such a simple way to bring maximum flavor to beans. This was my favorite bowl of the week. Bean use: 3 cups cooked Tepary beans (or however many you want to use)

greek cobb salad

Greek Chicken Cobb Salad My favorite part of making Cobb Salads is just putting all the vegetables I have on hand in them (i.e. leftover fennel and radishes). This recipe also called for chickpeas and I used our Tan Tepary beans instead. I also used some braised chicken from the freezer, which I reheated in a pot with a little water, some olive oil and Oaktown's Greek Seasoning. I forgot to add the olives I bought for this, whoops! The yogurt based dressing was nice and zingy! This is a great lunch to prep all the ingredients for on a Sunday and then mix up a salad each day for lunch that week. Bean use: 1.5 cups cooked Tepary beans.

fattoush salad

Fattoush Salad with Marinated Tepary Beans This salad is reminiscent of the Rosso di Lucca Sumac salad from earlier this month. The Tepary beans are marinated in pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, olive oil, sumac, and Piment d'Ville chile powder (mine were in the fridge overnight). The beans then get tossed with romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomato, radish, and toasted pita bread. I added some feta cheese. This was a delightful Sunday lunch Bean use: The recipe calls for 1 cup of cooked Tepary beans, but I used more like 2.5.

Warm Winter Grain Bowl with Roasted Vegetables In this grain bowl, I used our Tepary beans instead of lentils. Here you cook alliums with tomato paste and then add the Tepary beans and Ras al Hanout, a North African spice blend with over 20 ingredients. You end up with a kind of saucy baked bean that is spiced and rich and so good. I'd recommend making them even if you don't make the rest of the grain bowl. The bright tahini sauce did a good job of cutting the richness of the beans and it was fun to have other roasted veg in the bowl too. Bean use: 2-3 cups of cooked Tepary beans.

winter tepary bean salad

Winter Tepary Bean Salad This was my attempt at a wintery Tepary bean salad that was different enough from the Fall Tepary salad and the other things I ate last week. I roasted some broccoli and sliced turnips with salt and olive oil and tossed them with warmed tepary beans, radicchio, arugula, shaved fennel, and a lemony mustard vinaigrette. I slathered some greek yogurt seasoned with lemon, salt, and Italian herbs on the bottom of the bowl for something creamy and topped the salad with prosciutto. Bean use: 2 cups.

French Lentil Salad This salad made Gideon interested in eating lentils again after proclaiming that lentils are the worst. I think it would be very delicious with Tepary beans as the base. I prefer to sauté the onion, carrot and celery to give it a bit more flavor. There's something about the combination of the red wine vinaigrette, walnuts, and goat cheese that make this simple salad over the top. Bean use: 3-4 cups of cooked Tepary beans.

Soup and Sauce - Community Picks

These 2 recipes come courtesy of our friend Paul and Christine as favorite recipes they make at home with our Tepary beans.

The Best Lentil Soup (but with Tepary Beans) While this starts as a fairly standard lentil soup recipe, the addition of curry powder and fresh lemon juice make it a stand out. It also calls for blending a cup of the soup and adding it back to the pot to make it creamy without adding any dairy. Just remember that you want to add cooked Tepary beans, not uncooked Tepary beans to the pot or you'll never cook them in time for dinner. With this one, Paul says the squeeze of lemon at the end is key. Bean use: 2.5 cups cooked Tepary beans.

Lentil and Mushroom Bolognese Pasta Sauce (but also with Tepary beans) I love a good pasta bolognese, but man sometimes it can be so heavy. Adding mushrooms and balsamic vinegar to the standard onion, carrot, celery, and garlic of the sauce help give it a boost of umami. Using a mix of Tan and Dark Brown Tepary beans might add a good balance of sweet and earthy to replace the meat and be used instead of the lentils. The recipe here is just a video without specific quantities (you'll have to get the cookbook for that) but it seems simple enough to figure out quantities while you're cooking! Bean use: Around 2-3 cups of cooked Tepary beans.

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