Dry Beans To Cooked Beans To Canned Beans
I love beans but don’t love soaking beans overnight and then cooking them for hours in the middle of the week to make one of my favorite bean dishes. Yes, I know there advantages to cooking beans from scratch including nutrition, flavor and cost but there are nights I want to just open a can or two of beans to make a bean stew or Tuscan beans.
Problem: I never know the correct conversion of dry beans to cooked beans to canned beans and that is why I did a little research and am posting what I found here for you to use. These conversions are approximations and depend on the type of bean, the size and shape of the bean.
Canned Beans to Cooked Beans
- 14 -16 oz can = 1.5 cups cooked beans
- 19 oz can = 2¼ cups cooked beans
- 28 oz can = 3 – 3¼ cups cooked beans
Dry Bean Yields After Cooking
- 1 pound dry beans = 6 to 7 cups cooked beans, drained
- 1 pound dry beans = about 2 cups dry beans
- 1 cup dry beans (most kinds) = 3 cups cooked beans
- ⅔ cup dry beans (most kinds) = 2 cups cooked beans
- ½ cup dry beans (most kinds) = 1½ cups cooked beans
- ⅓cup dry beans = 1 cup cooked beans
Chick peas, great northern beans, and lima beans: 1 cup dry beans = 3 cups cooked beans
Lentils: 1 cup dried lentils = 3 cups cooked
How About Grams?
- 1 cup cooked black kidney beans = 60 grams = 2.2 ounces
- 1 cup cooked green beans chopped = 180 grams = 6.3 ounces
- 1 cup cooked Lima beans = 75 grams = 2.6 ounces
- 1 cup raw red kidney beans = 185 grams = 6.5 ounces
- 1 cup cooked soybeans = 75 grams = 2.6 ounces
Other Important Ingredient Conversions
| BEAN CONVERSIONS | INGREDIENT SUBSTITUTIONS |
| HERB CONVERSIONS | MUSHROOM CONVERSIONS |
| GRAIN CONVERSIONS | PASTA/RICE CONVERSIONS |
| INGREDIENT CONVERSIONS | TOMATO CONVERSIONS |
Great info. I like to use dry beans whenever I can, but didn’t know the conversion amounts from canned to dry. Thanks for sharing. M
Excellent information, thanks!
I STILL do not get it. I have a recipe that calls for 1/2 pound of dry chickpeas and I need to know how many cups cooked that is – – or how many 15 oz. cans? I am trying to make hummus. Please. Seems everyone wants to give me a conversion lesson, but I just want an answer for now. Can you help?
Hi J’Marinde,
One pound dried chickpeas = 2 cups dried chickpeas
One pound dried chickpeas = 6 cups fully cooked and drained chickpeas
One pound dried chickpeas = 4 cans (15 oz each) drained chickpeas.
Soooo, 1/2 pound dry chickpeas equals 3 cups fully cooked and drained chickpeas
I just tested this with 1/2 pound (about a cup) of dry navy beans. I divided the drained, cooked beans between two containers, and each one has the equivalent of about one 15 oz can of beans. Froze one and am using the other. They freeze very well.
Great idea! Thanks!
3 to 3-1/2 cups cooked and 2 if the 15oz cans
A can of beans (15.5 oz size) yields about
1 1/2 cups.
1/2 pounds should yield approximately 3 cups cooked chick peas.
J’Marinde, you need 2 15-oz cans of drained, rinsed chickpeas.
Don’t make the mistake of taking the weight of the contents of the can…you need the DRAINED weight or you’ll be eating beans for days!
Thanks for this great information, very generous!
How many dry great northern kidney and pinto beans do I use in a quart jar when canning them.
I know I fill rest of the way with water to the head-space. I don’t want over thickened beans.
Acording to these guidelines you’ll need about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups of dried beans for them to expand into the available space. The smaller measurement is for sligtly “soupier” vs “thicker” liquid after cooking. Or you could precook your beans and then can them.
8-10 oz, dry beans per quart/liter. canned.
This is probably a silly question, but would the ‘dry bean yield after cooking’, be the same thing as ‘dry bean yield after just soaking overnight’? I soaked some pinto beans overnight, rinsed them and them divided them into freezer containers. Now, when a recipe calls for 1 cup of soaked beans, I’m not sure how much I need.
They may be close to the cooking size, but might still continue to expand. They just begin to soften, through the cooking process, there on out. Just don’t add any vinegar, molasses, or tomato products, which restricts softening. Cook beans until completely softened first.
Thank you so much for this! It’s exactly what I needed. Printing this out to tape in my recipe binder!
Hi, I’m hoping you can help. My recipe calls for 250g brown beans, cooked. I’m not sure how to interpret this. Must I take 250g of dry beans and cook them, or use 250g of beans that are already cooked? Thanks!
Hi Yvette, if the recipe says 250g cooked, I would interpret that as meaning, already soaked and cooked so use 250g beans already cooked.
Enjoy your site and would love to receive e-mail updates. I don’t do Pinterest, Instagram, etc. Thanks for the consideration. Myrna
THANK YOU!! Am needing to cook 3 gal. of pintos for a Community Kitchen lunch. Haven’t cooked this quantity and your conversion info was just what I needed. If (notice the IF) I figured correctly, I think I will need apprx. 8# dried beans.
Thanks for this. It’s very well done. Useful information for bean preparation.
Learned in LA Times article that don’t need to soak beans, like garbanzo, pinto and black beans. Takes about 2 hours (a little less for black beans) to cook without any overnight soaking. Straight into pot with water and salt – that’s it! http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-dont-soak-dried-beans-20140911-story.html
So much more flavorful and can use less salt because the salty water is infused into the beans rather than adding salt after they are cooked. There is no comparison! We tend to eat beans more often now too. I can throw them in pot when I wake up and they are done before I leave the house. Thanks for conversion info!
We agree that it isn’t necessary to pre-soak as long as your body is accustomed to eating beans (which if it is, great!). If you’re new to beans, then it would be best to pre-soak. Regardless, according to the Blue Zone book, those who eat beans daily live 4 years longer on average. Gotta love that! Also wanted to thank you for this post — can see you put a lot of work into it so the rest of us have a great reference. Thank you.
I need 2 cups dry chick peas, i only have canned, how many cups of canned do i need?
12
Hi,
Since you have 2 cups of dried chickpeas, that’s about 1 pound. That 1 pound or 2 cups of dried chickpeas should yield about 6 to 7 cups of cooked beans.
Article says:
“Dry Bean Yields After Cooking:
1 pound dry beans = 6 to 7 cups cooked beans, drained
1 pound dry beans = about 2 cups dry beans”
“Canned Beans to Cooked Beans
14 -16 oz can = 1.5 cups cooked beans
19 oz can = 2.25 cups cooked beans
28 oz can = 3 – 3.25 cups cooked beans”
So, approximately 6-7 cups of cooked beans is approximately:
4 – 5 cans @ 14 – 16 ozs each (should give 6 – 7 1/2 cups)
3 cans @ 19 ozs each (should give 6 3/4 cups)
2 cans @ 28 ozs each (should give 6 – 6 1/2 cups)
Hope it helps!
Best wishes!!
Hi! I have a recipe that calls for 1 cup of chickpeas (soak about 1/2 cup of dry chickpeas/garbanzo beans in hot water for about 2 hours or room temperature water, overnight. Then, cook the beans until tender. I want to use canned garbanzo beans. How much should I use to equal what the recipe calls for?
This is FABULOUS! Thanks so much.
I prefer to soak my beans overnight in a tablespoon of baking soda – and rinse well – this really helps de-gas them. Also, in Mexico we use a fresh herb called epazote and one sprig of that also counters the gas.
I prefer the taste (and anti-gas) of the beans I cook, so sometimes I just freeze the extras. If I’m feeling really ambitious, I’ll even measure them. I often use a regular zip-lock sandwich bag. If I freeze them really flat, either on a box of frozen food, or (temporarily use a cooky sheet), after they freeze, they will stand nicely on their side, if I want to store them that way.
Thanks Andrea for that useful information. I look forward to trying your techniques.
Thanks so much for info…
I have a recipe that calls for 14 oz of dried white beans – is that 1.75 cups?
If you are asking about 14 ounces of dried white beans to cooked beans ratio, I would say it would be closer to 1.5 cups cooked but this is an approximation that works for me.
I need to know how many tablespoons is 1 cup of cooked beans.
This is because cups are foreign to me or to most of the world.
I still don’t understand how you guys can make any sense of these imperial measures.
Give me grams any day…
Cis, here’s what I found on the Internet. 1 cup of cooked black kidney beans is equivalent to 60 grams or 2.2 ounces. I know you asked for tablespoons but I thought you would prefer grams. Besides tablespoons can’t be converted to grams because tablespoons measure volume, while grams measure mass.
Thanks! Great information. I am always estimating. I am going to print this out and keep it handy. I try to use dry beans when I can and most of my recipes have the canned amount listed.
Good stuff to know. Thanks so much.
You are very welcome Marian.
Thank you for sharing! I appreciate the time and effort you spent on this and your generosity in sharing. Have a blessed day!
Fine business, thanks for that bit of useful information.
Thanks for doing the homework.I’ve been canning(jarring)for a few years. Chick peas red beans,chili sans carne.etc etc.And I didn’t know my cost ratio or the equivalency values (half colander equals 10 8 oz jars) Well thanks to your handy dandy chart I now know it’s about 33 cents per finished jar.Happy Happy.Plus no weird ingredients I can’t pronounce. Keep on chooglin
Thanks, Bob
You are welcome Bobby.
I have canned red kidney beans. But i want to know how much is 60 gms of uncooked red kidney beans once cooked ?
Thank you for sharing this information!!
I need to know how many 6 cups of fresh fava beans are in cans. I don’t know the size of the cans yet, but once I do I can figure it out.
Thank you
What great ratio info!! I love fresh beans vs canned but sometimes gotta use ’em in a pinch. This was so detailed and easy to understand. Thank you for doing all the work!
I read an article on the cooking of hydrated common beans that claimed the length of cooking time could affect the fiber content of the beans and they recommended kidney beans soak for a minimum of eight hours and they implied there was a toxin in the beans if not done– also they recommended all common beans cook in a “rapid boil for 30 minutes which insures a good fiber content to the individual bean. Once cooked refrigerate and do not reheat or the bean will take on a less favorable gummy high carbohydrate content. Sorry this is from memory and I cannot quote the source.
Do you know how many cups or pounds of dry (un-soaked) pinto beans I can cook in an 8 quart electric pressure cooker (an Instant Pot)? Thank you!!
I’ve cooked 2 lbs of pinto beans in 12 cups (3 qt) of water in my 8qt IP and they come out perfect.
Thanks Andrea for responding to Donna.
Hi, I am wanting to ferment some beans…the recipe I want to do calls for 2.5 cups raw black eyed peas or other field beans/peas. Can I use canned beans for this? Or dried soaked beans?
Please, what is the canned equivalent of 175 grams of dried chickpeas?
Hi Carol, not sure what you are asking?
Hi. Need Help, please.
Two questions.
How many servings in one cup of dried Pigeon Peas cooked? How many cups in one pound of dry Pigeon Peas?
Thank you!
Thank you.
Very helpful post! Thank you for the significant effort that went in to compiling and sharing this information.
I’d like to add my thanks for this post. I have bookmarked it and refer to it regularly.
With appreciation,
Pamela
You are very welcome Pamela. Thanks for letting me know.
thanks so much for this!! i buy from a bulk store and like to only buy as much as i need for a recipe, this helps a ton. i really appreciate the time you spent on this! hope you are well, happy new year 🙂