Haricot Bean (boiled)

Why haricot bean (boiled) is rated high

Haricot beans, the small white beans sold as navy beans and used for baked beans, are rated high when boiled from dried. GOS and fructans are the reason. Boiling the beans from dried leaves much of that load sitting in them, so the low serve is a single spoonful: about 1 tablespoon (20g) is low, a larger portion is moderate, and a much larger portion, such as a normal helping, is high.

What changes your risk

• Serving size About 1 tablespoon (20g) is low, larger portions are moderate and much larger portions are high. That is a garnish rather than a helping, so the bean works as an accent, not the base of a dish.
• The canning liquid GOS and fructans are water-soluble, which is why beans packed in liquid give some of them up to the brine. Draining the can and rinsing the beans under cold water until the water runs clear removes part of that load. Canned and rinsed haricots are a different preparation from the boiled-from-dried beans on this page.
• The cooking water Soaking dried haricots and cooking them in a generous pot of water, then tipping that water away instead of reducing it into the dish, takes some GOS with it. Cooking itself does not destroy FODMAPs, so slow-simmering the beans for hours or baking them into a casserole will not lower the load on its own.
• Stacking GOS Baked beans on toast next to a bean soup, or a plate carrying both haricots and chickpeas, loads the same subgroup repeatedly in one meal. GOS from several sources adds together even when each helping seems small.
• What comes with the beans Baked beans, cassoulet and most bean soups are built on onion and garlic and a sweetened tomato sauce, so the dish usually carries more than the beans do. Garlic infused oil gives you that savoury base without the fructans from solid garlic.

Swaps

Another bean is not an easier bean, so lentils, butter beans and kidney beans in normal helpings are not the way around this. For the soft, starchy body haricots give a soup or stew, diced potato or cooked polenta thickens it in much the same way, and firm tofu adds the protein and bulk that made the beans worth including. Quinoa works where the beans were padding out a salad. For a cassoulet-style dish, plain sausage or chicken with potato and carrot keeps the comfort without the GOS. If what you miss is specifically the baked bean flavour, that sauce is the easier part to rebuild: a tomato base sweetened with a little maple syrup or table sugar and finished with garlic infused oil, spooned over potato rather than beans.

How to lower the load

Dried haricots are cheap and the household may keep eating them, so the practical move is to cook your own component separately rather than to try to portion out of a shared pot, since the beans and their sauce cannot really be separated once the dish is made. Buying canned rather than dried at least lets you drain and rinse, which sheds some GOS into the sink instead of the bowl. Watch tinned soups, minestrone, cassoulet and full English breakfasts, where haricots arrive under the name navy beans or simply baked beans. When ordering, a jacket potato with cheddar or tuna covers the same warm, filling slot as beans on toast.

Common questions

are haricot beans low fodmap

Only as a spoonful. About 1 tablespoon (20g) is low, larger portions are moderate and much larger portions are high, with GOS and fructans responsible.

how much haricot bean can i eat

About 1 tablespoon (20g) is the low serve. Larger portions are moderate and much larger portions, such as a normal helping, are high.

do canned baked beans count the same as boiled haricot beans

They are the same bean, but the preparation differs. Some GOS leaches into the canning liquid, so drained and rinsed canned beans run lower than the same beans boiled from dried, and baked bean sauce often adds onion and garlic on top.

what can i use instead of haricot beans in soup

Diced potato or polenta gives the same starchy thickness, and firm tofu covers the protein and bulk. Swapping in lentils or butter beans does not help, since they carry GOS too.