Which beans have the most calories per dry-weight?
Note: This includes anything someone might refer to as a "bean" and excludes foods that are perishable.
What varieties of beans are high in calories
beanscaloriesnutrient-composition
Related Solutions
According to this extensive bean cooking guide from University of Alaska Fairbanks, the secret is to simmer the beans gently. Unfortunately, they have little more to say on the matter.
Kenji Lopez-Alt, in his column on Food Myths at Serious Eats says (emphasis added):
Most of us have been told at some point in our culinary careers that salting beans will cause them to toughen. It's incredible that this little bit of culinary mis-wisdom still lingers, for it couldn't be further from the truth. A simple side-by-side test can prove to you conclusively that salting beans (both the water used to soak them in and the water used to cook them) actually tenderizes the skins.
It's got to do with magnesium and calcium, two ions found in the bean skins that help keep the structure of the beans' skin intact. When you soak the beans in salt water, sodium ions end up replacing some of the magnesium and calcium, effectively softening the skins. Your beans come out creamier, better seasoned, and have a much smaller likelihood of exploding while cooking.
He provides this image of the contrast:
I believe the take away from this is:
- Pre-soak your beans overnight, as your grandmother did using salted water
- Cook them at bare simmer, stirring them minimally, to prevent physical damage to the skins.
The second can easily be achieved by placing the bean pot in a moderate (350 F, 180 C) oven rather than doing it stove top.
Most of the weight in fresh fruit is water, which has no calories.
When you dry the fruit, the remainder is concentrated, so there are more calories in a given volume or weight.
Sulfur dioxide is a preservative with anti-microbial properties.
The claim of 3.6 times the energy is specious.
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Best Answer
This is possibly pointless to answer, the general calorie difference between bean varieties is less than the difference from sub-varieties and growing conditions
Use wikipedia or wolframalpha to get average figures for the beans you can get locally, but you really need to test them if this is truly important
For what it's worth chickpeas are very high and commonly available. Wheat is much higher still!