Whether you’re vegan or vegetarian, or simply interested in adding more meatless bean recipes to your regular rotation, you’ll want to stash these delicious dishes in your back pocket. From versatile basics and hearty soups to bean salads, dips, and a red beans & rice favorite — these recipes offer up a lot of flavorful bean goodness without the meat.

Instant Pot White Beans

This foolproof Instant Pot recipe is perfect for flavorful beans that can be enjoyed as is, or used in dishes like White Bean Hummus, White Bean Pesto Pasta, and White Bean Veggie Burgers.

Cajun Caviar

Serve with chips as a dip, over greens as a salad, or wrapped up in a tortilla for quick lunch. Works well with any combo of Camellia Brand beans and peas you like.

White Bean & Spinach Soup

Fresh sprigs of thyme and rosemary make this soup fragrant, while wilted leafy greens add a pop of color. Warm and satisfying!

Hummus

A classic recipe for traditional hummus, made with fresh lemon juice and tahini. Because homemade is always better than store-bought, and saves money, too.

Vegetarian Louisiana-Style Red Beans & Rice

Liquid smoke adds wonderful savory flavor to meatless red beans & rice. Remember, a little goes a long way!

Blackeye Pea Salad

A delicious recipe from our friend, Chef Jennifer Hill Booker, this dish comes to life with a tangy apple cider vinaigrette and red pepper flakes.

Beans & Greens Soup

We say any beans & greens mixture is a match made in heaven, and this soup is no exception. This brilliant “master” recipe is meant to be personalized to your tastes.

Instant Pot Black Beans

This versatile recipe makes flavorful beans that can be served over rice with your favorite toppings — or used in other vegetarian dishes like Black Bean Quinoa Salad, Black Bean Hummus, and Black Bean Burgers.

Vegetarian Pinto Bean Chili

One of the easiest chili recipes around, this one comes together quickly and will stick to your ribs.

Flourless Black Bean Brownies

A vegetarian treat that’s rich, fudgy, and yep, features black beans.

With so many meatless recipes and seafood dishes to choose from, eating creatively during Lent is delicious and oh so easy to do. Check out some of our favorite hearty meals here, and enjoy incredibly satisfying flavor (and protein) without the meat.

The Best Meatless Black Eyed Peas & Rice

Hearty, healthy, and Lent-ready, this vegetarian version fits the bill.

Chipotle Pinto Bean Tortilla Soup

Gluten-free, vegetarian and quick to make. Serve with tasty, colorful toppings like cilantro, red onion, avocado, cheese and tortilla strips.

White Bean Pesto Pasta

This 4-ingredient wonder made with store-bought pesto tosses together quickly and makes a great weeknight meal.

Golden Sautéed Catfish

Deliciously easy (and healthy) when paired with our Crowder Peas and Okra.

Vegetarian Black Bean & Rice Casserole

A hearty casserole that’s creamy and flavorful — perfect by itself, as a filling for tacos, or alongside seafood!

Lima Bean Curry

Mmmm. Ginger-garlic paste, tomatoes, turmeric, chili powder, and coriander add bold flavor to this meatless lima bean favorite.

Vegetarian Louisiana-Style Red Beans & Rice

Second helping, anyone? The secret ingredient to this version of our beloved classic is liquid smoke seasoning.

Home cooks experimenting with the “Meatless Monday” trend are often attracted to the New Orleans red beans tradition as a way of building 24-hour stretches of vegetarianism into an otherwise omnivorous lifestyle. But sometimes, adapting a traditional cooking method rich in meaty products (sausage, hambones, pickled pork) is more complicated than just leaving your favorite pig products out of the mix. Too often, a batch of vegetarian beans can be lackluster and bland compared to its meaty counterpart.

Luckily, there are simple steps that any home cook can follow to add flavorful dimensions to meat-free beans and making it an easier sell to families accustomed to a meatier version of the New Orleans classic.

Here are a few options to fleshing out the flavors of meatless Monday night red beans recipe.

Amp It Up: Herbs and Spices

When we leave out the meat, we need to compensate for the flavors we’re losing. Oftentimes the subtle flavor notes contained in a favorite sausage (pepper, garlic, heat from cayenne) or ham product (bone, hock or actual ham) also disappear when we go meat-free.

Counteract that flavor loss by upping the amount of your favorite spices or herbs by a bit to distract your tongue from the missing meat.

For example:

• Add more garlic to the initial sauté. Because… garlic.
• Increase your black pepper by a teaspoon or so.
• Instead of quick-sautéing onions, cook the onions beyond golden-brown to a deeper shade. Even a slight caramelization adds flavorful depth to the mix.
• Experiment with flavoring herbs (adding a little thyme or dried basil to mimic sausage ingredients).
• Add a little more green onion than you usually would to freshen the final bowl.

The key here is to excite the taste buds, but with a balanced addition of other interesting flavors.

Bait and Switch: Substitute the Smoke

Much of the savory profile of our favorite flavoring meats (andouille, tasso, ham hocks, smoked chicken wings) come from the distinctive flavor of woodsmoke. Done right, it’s a little reminiscent of a backyard BBQ in your bowl of Monday night beans.

The thing is, cooks have realized over the years that smoking is great for foodstuffs outside the animal kingdom. For example:

• Chipotle Peppers in Adobo — This classic Mexican preparation teams smoked jalapeño peppers and a tangy tomato sauce. Unless you’re a fan of the heat, use latex gloves and a paring knife to carefully remove the seeds and internal membranes where most of the hot stuff resides. (Readily available in most grocery stores.)
• Smoked Paprika — Spanish cooks developed a smoked mild chile pepper called pimenton that adds an earthy but substantial smoky note to meatless beans. Heat isn’t so much the issue here as color; overuse can make your beans RED RED, so adjust accordingly.
• Liquid Smoke — Many home cooks in south Louisiana swear by this spice-aisle staple as the secret to their red beans. If you’re interested, give it a shot, but ever so judiciously — a little Liquid smoke goes a long way.

Double Cream: Mounting with Butter

This little trick comes straight from classical French cuisine, specifically their rich tradition of mother sauces. Specialists called sauciers often “mount” a slightly heated concoction (steak juices and red wine, for example) with chilled butter, resulting in a rich but simple sauce.

The key here is to keep track of your temperature. If the beans are too hot, the solids and fats will separate instead of adding creamy richness. Avoid this rookie mistake by taking beans off the heat about 20 minutes before serving, then stir in half a stick of butter to the pot before serving. As the butter melts, you’ll have extra-rich beans and your guests won’t even miss the meat.

Vegetarian Louisiana-Style Red Beans and Rice