Canned vs. fresh beans

Beans, which count towards your recommended five daily portions of fruit and vegetables, come loaded with iron and fibre. They’re also high in protein, which makes them a particularly good addition to your diet if you're a vegetarian. Canning companies source their beans from all over the world, but in the United Kingdom most fresh beans are likely to be the varieties native to this part of Europe. These include broad beans, French beans and runner beans.

Convenience

Delia Smith points out that the convenience of canned beans is that much of the preparation has been done for you. Therefore, canned beans are a great storecupboard ingredient. Canned beans can be eaten without any further cooking, so they’re a quick addition to salads. Ensure you rinse the beans thoroughly to remove any excess salt still clinging to the skins. Fresh beans, on the other hand, need a short cooking time – just a few minutes steaming or boiling is enough – although if you buy them in their pods you’ll have to allow some time to remove the pods.

Availability

Fresh beans will only be available while they’re in season. Most varieties grown in the U.K. are harvested from late June and July through to September or early October. You can enjoy them at their fresh best during this time or dry them and store them in an airtight jar to use over the winter. Alternatively, canned beans are available all year round so there’s no need to wait until summer to enjoy your favourite bean-related meals. A much wider variety of types of bean are available in cans, including kidney, cannelloni, flageolet and adzuki.

Cooking Properties

Several kinds of popular canned beans are perfect for soups and stews where they will absorb the flavour of the liquid they’re cooked in and provide a rich and warming dish. Delia Smith recommends adding either cannellini or butter beans to your soups and stews for this reason. For fresh broad beans, Delia suggests steaming young beans, but for slightly older beans, try boiling them to soften and tenderise the skin.

Nutrition

Fresh beans contain nutrients, including vitamin C, which are destroyed by exposure to heat. This means that, if eaten raw, fresh beans are more nutritious as far as vitamins are concerned. However, both protein and fibre are unaffected by the cooking process, which means that there is little difference between fresh and canned beans in this respect. If you’re using canned beans, reduce your consumption of unnecessary preservatives by checking the label and avoiding those with added salt and sugar, advises NHS Choices.