Bean Pâté
There's bean some chatter about the bean pâté featured on our "bean-cuterie" board, so we put together a quick and riffable recipe. It's the recipe you never knew you needed: beans, walnuts, herbs, and spices come together into a savory, thick spread for your next grazing board that'll please vegetarians and omnivores alike. The butter is key, it helps the pâté retain its shape as it chills. Add it to your rotation as you prepare for holiday entertaining.
Why This Works
What makes this bean pâté so clever is how it takes the concept of traditional meat pâté, rich, savory, spreadable, and recreates it entirely with plants. Creamy beans provide the base, walnuts add richness and a slightly meaty texture, butter contributes fat and helps everything bind together, and herbs and spices bring complexity and depth.
The result is a spread that's sophisticated enough for a fancy cheese board but easy enough to whip up on a weeknight. It slices beautifully when chilled, looks gorgeous on a platter, and tastes like something you'd pay good money for at a fancy food shop. But it comes together in minutes in a food processor and costs a fraction of what you'd pay for store-bought.
The Star: Cranberry Beans
Let's talk about Cranberry beans, Doudlah Farms' heirloom beauties that are perfect for this pâté. These thin-skinned beans cook down to a velvety texture, making them ideal for blending into a smooth spread. What sets these particular beans apart is their remarkable versatility and nuanced flavor profile, slightly buttery with earthy undertones that complement rather than overpower other ingredients.
What makes Cranberry beans perfect for pâté is their color as much as their texture. These beautiful beans give the pâté a nice meaty look, a reddish-brown hue that makes it look substantial and appealing on a grazing board. When blended with walnuts and butter, they create something that's visually and texturally reminiscent of traditional pâté but completely plant-based.
Our Cranberry beans come from Mark Doudlah at Doudlah Farms in Wisconsin. Mark is a 6th generation farmer who transformed his family's conventional farm into a certified regenerative organic operation. After his father was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, known as The Midwest Farmers' Cancer, due to long-term exposure to farm chemicals, Mark knew he had to change how they farmed. Today, Doudlah Farms goes beyond organic with Regenerative Organic Certification and continuous testing to ensure the cleanest, most nutrient-dense beans possible. As a sixth-generation Wisconsin farming family, the Doudlahs understand that truly good food must nourish both the body and the land from which it comes, a philosophy you can literally taste in every spoonful. Learn more about Mark and Doudlah Farms.
Choosing Your Beans
While we feature Cranberry beans here, this recipe is wonderfully adaptable. You want a creamy bean that will blend smoothly, Southwest Red or Speckled Bayo would both be excellent choices. We like how colored beans like these give the pâté a nice meaty look, but white beans would work too if that's what you have on hand.
The key is using beans that are well-cooked and creamy. Undercooked beans won't blend as smoothly, and you want that silky texture that makes this pâté so appealing.
The Supporting Players
Walnuts add richness, healthy fats, and a slightly meaty texture that makes this pâté substantial. Toasting them lightly before blending intensifies their flavor and adds a subtle nuttiness. You could substitute other nuts, pecans would be lovely, or even sunflower seeds for a nut-free version, but walnuts have that earthy quality that works particularly well with beans.
Butter is essential. It adds richness, helps bind everything together, and most importantly, helps the pâté firm up and hold its shape when chilled. Make sure it's softened before blending so it incorporates smoothly.
Fresh herbs bring brightness and complexity. A mix of dill, basil, and parsley is wonderful, but feel free to play with what you have. Thyme, chives, or even cilantro would work depending on the flavor profile you're going for.
Smoky chili adds depth and a subtle heat that makes the pâté more interesting. Diaspora Co's Guntur Sannam or Burlap & Barrel's Smoked Pimentón Paprika are both excellent, but any smoky paprika or chili powder will work.
Making the Pâté
The process couldn't be simpler. Everything goes into a food processor, drained cooked beans, toasted walnuts, softened butter, garlic, herbs, and smoky chili. You pulse just until blended, being careful not to overprocess. You want it smooth but with a little texture, not completely pureed.
Season generously with salt and pepper. This is important, beans and nuts both need good seasoning to really shine. Taste and adjust until it's flavorful and well-balanced.
Scrape the mixture onto plastic wrap and mold it into a log. This is where it gets fun, you're creating something that looks professional and impressive. Wrap it tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to several days. The chilling firms up the butter and allows the flavors to meld.
Serving
When you're ready to serve, unwrap the log and slice it into rounds. Each slice should hold its shape nicely, looking almost like slices of meat pâté. Arrange them on a platter with crackers or baguette slices.
This is where the bean-cuterie board concept comes in. Surround your bean pâté with cheese, pickles, olives, tinned seafood, fresh and dried fruit, nuts, and honey. The bean pâté becomes one element of a gorgeous, abundant spread that offers something for everyone, vegetarians get their protein from the beans, omnivores get their tinned fish, and everyone gets to graze happily.
Make It Your Own
This recipe is endlessly riffable. Try different bean varieties, different nut combinations, different herb blends, different spices. Add sun-dried tomatoes for a Mediterranean vibe. Stir in some miso for extra umami. Top the log with fresh herbs or crushed nuts before slicing for visual appeal.
You can also change the shape, instead of a log, press it into a small loaf pan or ramekin and serve it as a spread. Or form it into a rough pâté shape and serve it in a bowl with a knife for spreading.
Perfect for Entertaining
What makes this recipe so valuable for holiday entertaining is how it solves the vegetarian problem on cheese and charcuterie boards. So often, vegetarians get the short end of the stick, they can eat the cheese and crackers, but miss out on the protein-rich, savory spreads that make these boards so satisfying.
This bean pâté changes that. It's substantial, flavorful, and satisfying. It looks beautiful on a board. And it appeals to everyone, not just vegetarians. Even committed meat-eaters find themselves reaching for it because it's genuinely delicious.
Plus, you can make it ahead, which is invaluable when you're preparing for a party. Make it a day or two in advance, keep it wrapped in the fridge, and just slice and serve when guests arrive.
A Spread That Surprises
The best thing about this bean pâté is how it surprises people. They see it on the board, try it out of curiosity, and then come back for seconds. "Wait, this is made from beans?" they'll ask. Yes, it is. And yes, it's delicious.
It's proof that beans can be elegant and sophisticated, that vegetarian food can be just as rich and satisfying as meat-based dishes, and that some of the best recipes are the simplest ones, just a few good ingredients treated well.
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