Anasazi Beans

Anasazi Beans are 1/2 inch (1 cm) long, with purply-red splotches on a white background when fresh. When dried, the white background becomes brownish; when cooked the colour fades to beige.

Anasazi Beans are grown for drying. The plant is ready to harvest 90 days from planting. Its deep root system makes it drought-resistant.

Anasazi Beans cook up faster than most beans, and when cooked, have a texture that is soft and mealy.

Anasazi Beans is a name that was trademarked by a company called Adobe Mills.

Cooking Tips for Anasazi Beans

Anasazi Beans don't need presoaking.

If you do presoak them, cook them for either 2 hours simmering, or 15 minutes in a pressure cooker.

Substitutes for Anasazi Beans

Pinto Beans, Red Kidney Beans

Nutrition for Anasazi Beans

23% protein, 7% carbohydrates, 20% fibre, 0% fat, 0% cholesterol.

Only has 1/4 of the oligosaccharides that other beans do: it's these oligosaccharides that cause flatulence.

Per 1/4 cup (50 g), cooked: 150 calories, 10 g protein, .5 g fat, 27 g carbohydrate, 9 g fibre, 2.7 mg iron.

Equivalents for Anasazi Beans

1 cup uncooked = 2 1/2 cups cooked

16 oz weight uncooked = 6 cups cooked
1/4 cup cooked (4 tablespoons) = 2 oz / 50 g

History Notes for Anasazi Beans

The Anasazi Indians didn't called themselves Anasazi; that's a Navajo word that means "The Ancients" or possibly "Ancient Enemies." They are a people who lived in an area of North America now marked by the corners of the four American states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is estimated that they acquired beans about 500 AD; they lived in cliff dwellings between 1200 and 1300 AD. They migrated to many different locations, and they took their skills and knowledge with them as well as their crop seeds.

Anasazi Beans were reputedly found by archaeologists in the ruins of cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, southern Colorado. Though ancient, some of the beans could still germinate, and did.

Others say Anaszi Beans were found by settlers in the early 1900s; still another version of the story says that the beans were found in the 1980s (some say the dig was in the 1950s) by an archeological team from UCLA looking in New Mexico for remains of Pygmy elephants (sic). They found five beans in a clay pot that had been sealed with pine tar. Carbon dating put the beans back 1500 years.

Whenever they were found, it's highly unlikely they germinated. The outside window for bean seeds still being good is 50 years.

People in the area pooh pooh another version of the story, and say that the beans have been grown all along.

The most likely origin of Anasazi Beans is that they were growing around the area, either cultivated by people or through self-seeding over the years. White settlers found them and began growing them. If there is any truth at all to the pot story-line, it may be that the beans in the pot happened to be the same as what were being grown in the area.

Ernis Waller and Bruce Riddell trademarked the name "Anasazi Beans" and launched the bean commercially in 1993.

The Anasazi Bean has been improved by breeders at Colorado State University and USDA-ARS to increase yields and improve disease resistance.

Also called:

Aztec Beans; Cave Beans; New Mexico Appaloosa Beans; New Mexico Cave Beans

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