The cannellini are butter beans and lima beans the same is often used in soups, with pastas, in salads, and beyond. It is prized for its subtle, nutty flavor and its readiness to take on the flavoring of other ingredients used in a dish, from red tomato-based sauces to salt and butter flavors to spices and more. Beyond their great favor and texture, these beans are also prized for their health benefits.
All that said, if you ever find yourself without these celebrated beans on hand, there are plenty of options you can substitute for cannellini beans. Great northern beans are about as close as you can get to the cannellini bean. While slightly smaller than cannellini beans and slightly milder in flavor, they have a nutty taste similar to their larger, popular counterpart and they can be used interchangeably in just about every dish you will ever make with a cannellini bean. Also often called simply “large white beans,” great northern beans, like their “Italian” counterparts, are high in protein, low in fat, high in fiber, and a great source of many nutrients, according to Spoon University. Navy beans are also called pea beans due to their rather small size and rounded shape, though like most white beans they are ovular, not circular. Unlike great northern beans and more like cannellini beans, navy beans have relatively tough skin and dense flesh, so they are ideal for use into make foods like Boston baked beans, pasta e fagioli soups, pork and beans, and other dishes where the chef wants the beans to hold their shape.
That said, navy beans can of course be pureed for dips, soups, and more. Butterbeans are so named for the rather buttery flavor and texture they yield when prepared well. Plump and creamy when fully cooked, they do in fact have a butterlike texture that is very appealing,” according to the Tampa Bay Times. Butter beans don’t have a ton of flavor, so they’re best when pumped up with some fat, particularly bacon or ham. Eric Scott Esch, former boxer, kickboxer, and mixed martial artist, not to mention professional wrestler, who, according to Sports Casting, tipped the scales at more than 400 pounds when in the heyday of his career.
Kidney beans are a wonderful substitute for cannellini beans because they are nearly identical in terms of their size and texture and how they handle in dishes. They cook the same way, they break down and mash the same way, and they puree down all just like cannellini beans. In terms of nutrition, kidney beans are also good comps to the cannellini bean. A one cup serving of cooked kidney beans has about 17 grams of protein, 13 grams of fiber, only around 270 calories, and just a bit more than a gram of fat, according to Healthline. Kidney beans are also a great source of folate, potassium, iron, vitamin K1, and other essential nutrients. Also commonly called chickpeas, they can be used to make everything from hummus to falafel to bean burgers, and of course they are delicious and nutritious eaten on their own.