Food & Drink

12 of the South’s Best Bean Recipes

Whether they’re dried, canned, frozen, or fresh, beans and field peas are staples of the Southern larder. Here are a dozen recipes that put these humble and hard-working ingredients to tasty use
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Oven-Baked Lentil Soup with Greens

A warming vegetable soup with Tennessee roots and a British accent.

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Photo: ANDREW MONTGOMERY

Red Beans & Rice

Garden & Gun Club’s Gina Lee shares her recipe for the classic New Orleans dish.

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Photo: FARRAH POWER

Butter Bean Salad

A delicious, yet simple bean salad with lemon, parsley, and shrimp.

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Photo: MARGARET HOUSTON

Barbecue Beans

Smoky, spicy, and complex,  try baked beans the Lone Star State way.

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Alphabet Soup for Grownups

In this savory roasted tomato and pepper soup, Southern field peas play the part of those teeny pasta letters and numbers.

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Photo: AUBRIE PICK

Slowly Simmered Field Peas

A go-to recipe for the Southern staple, complementing fresh or dried peas with tomato, jalapeño, and a medley of herbs.

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Photo: PETER FRANK EDWARDS

Hoppin’ John

It’s not just for the new year. Black-eyed peas, rice, and pork come together 
for a big helping of Southern tradition.

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Photo: JOHNNY AUTRY

Arkansas Trail Mix

House-made cheese straws plus a slew of local add-ins—candied black walnuts and pecans, and flash-fried soybeans and black-eyed peas—equal one addictive nosh.

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Photo: JOHNNY AUTRY

French-Style Succotash

Butter beans and bacon blend with tarragon and cream in a Georgia chef’s French-accented succotash.

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Photo: JOHNNY AUTRY

Black-Eyed Pea Biryani

An exotic yet familiar spin on a Southern stalwart.

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Photo: JOHNNY AUTRY

Not-Quite-Classic-But-Close Soup Beans

The most soul-satisfying—and least expensive—dinner in the Southern-food canon.

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Photo: PHILLIP RHODES

Peas and Greens

Celebrate the New Year—or any day—with chef Ashley Christensen’s recipe for luck and money.

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Photo: LISSA GOTWALS