Pizza Beans!
Created in partnership with fellow mama-led brand Not Just, by real-life parents seeking easy veggie-loaded dinners that everyone can enjoy. Grab a bag of Primary Beans Cannellini beans and Not Just Co 10 Veggie Pasta Sauce, and gather the kiddos in the kitchen for a dish that's not only fun to make but fun to eat!
Why This Recipe Works
Pizza beans are genius for several reasons. First, they take the flavors kids already love, pizza!, and deliver them in a form that's packed with protein, fiber, and vegetables. Second, they're fun and interactive, served on toasted bread like pizza on a crust. Third, they're easy enough that kids can help make them, building enthusiasm and buy-in for actually eating them.
The magic is in how the beans are cooked in their concentrated, flavorful broth, then mixed with veggie-loaded pasta sauce, fresh basil, and topped with melted mozzarella. It's essentially all the best parts of pizza, cheese, sauce, herbs, but with beans as the star, served on crispy bread for scooping.
The Star: Cannellini Beans
Let's talk about Cannellini beans, creamy Italian white beans that are perfect for this kid-friendly dish. These medium-sized beans have a smooth, silky texture and mild flavor that appeals to young palates. They're not challenging or strong-tasting—they're comforting and accessible, the kind of bean that even picky eaters might enjoy.
What makes Cannellini beans ideal for pizza beans is how they absorb the tomato sauce and create a creamy, cohesive mixture. Each bean becomes infused with those familiar pizza flavors, tomato, garlic, basil, while adding protein and substance that makes this a complete meal.
The beans are cooked with onion, garlic, and bay leaf, which flavors them from the beginning. That flavorful cooking liquid becomes part of the final dish, adding depth and richness.
The Not Just Partnership
This recipe was created in partnership with Not Just Co, a mama-led brand making 10 Veggie Pasta Sauce, a brilliant product that sneaks ten vegetables into a sauce that tastes great. For parents trying to get more vegetables into their kids, this is a game-changer.
The sauce already contains carrots, tomatoes, onions, celery, red bell peppers, spinach, zucchini, butternut squash, garlic, and basil. Combined with the beans, you've got a seriously veggie-loaded dish that kids actually want to eat because it tastes like pizza.
The Bean Liquid
The recipe emphasizes that the bean liquid should be rich and concentrated, not watery. If it's too thin, you simmer the beans for 5-15 minutes to concentrate the liquid before proceeding. This concentrated bean broth adds incredible flavor and body to the final dish.
You reserve a third of a cup of this liquid, drain the beans, then add them back to the pot with the pasta sauce, basil, and that reserved liquid. This creates a sauce that's flavorful, slightly creamy, and perfectly thick, not soupy.
The Pizza Flavors
The pizza flavors come from familiar elements: tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and optional mini pepperoni. These are the flavors kids know and love from pizza night, just delivered in a different (and more nutritious) format.
Fresh basil gets added in two stages, half wilted into the bean mixture for integrated flavor, half scattered on top at the end for bright, fresh pops. Fresh mozzarella (thinly sliced into rounds) melts beautifully under the broiler, creating that stretchy, gooey cheese that makes pizza so appealing.
Mini pepperoni are optional but add that classic pizza element for kids who love pepperoni pizza. They crisp up slightly under the broiler, adding texture and familiar flavor.
The Toasted Bread
The toasted baguette slices are essential, they're your "crust," the vehicle for eating the pizza beans. Sliced baguette gets drizzled with olive oil and broiled until golden brown and crispy. These become sturdy enough to support generous scoops of beans while staying crunchy.
Kids love the interactive element of scooping beans onto bread, and it makes the dish feel more fun and less like "just eating beans." It's pizza-adjacent, which is much more exciting.
The Broiling
The assembled bean mixture (in a casserole dish or large oven-safe skillet) gets topped with mozzarella, optional pepperoni, and a drizzle of olive oil, then goes under the broiler for about 5 minutes. The broiler is key, it melts and browns the cheese quickly, creating those bubbling, golden spots that look and taste like pizza.
You need to monitor carefully under the broiler since things can go from golden to burned quickly. But when it's right, you get melted mozzarella with browned edges, slightly crisped pepperoni, and bubbling bean mixture underneath.
Kid-Friendly Appeal
What makes this so kid-friendly is:
- Familiar flavors: Pizza flavors kids already love
- Fun format: Scooping onto bread feels interactive and fun
- Hidden vegetables: The pasta sauce is packed with veggies that taste good
- Protein and fiber: Beans add nutrition without being challenging
- Easy to help make: Kids can help toast bread, assemble, add toppings
Serving
Bring the bubbling casserole to the table with the toasted bread on the side. Let everyone scoop beans onto their own bread, building their own "pizza." Some kids might want extra cheese, others might skip the pepperoni, let them customize.
The communal, interactive nature makes dinner more engaging and fun, which often leads to kids actually eating (and enjoying) their food.
Versatility
While this is designed for kids, adults will find it delicious too. It's comfort food that happens to be healthy, creamy beans, rich tomato sauce, melted cheese, fresh basil. Serve it with a simple green salad for adults who want something fresh alongside.
You can also customize based on what your kids like, add different toppings, skip the pepperoni for vegetarian, use different beans if preferred.
A Mama-Led Solution
What makes this recipe special is that it was created by parents for parents, people who understand the challenge of getting kids to eat nutritious food, who know that sometimes you need to meet kids where they are (loving pizza) while sneaking in the good stuff (beans, vegetables).
The partnership between Primary Beans and Not Just Co makes sense, both are mama-led brands focused on making good food accessible and appealing, especially to families with kids.
Making Dinner Fun
At the end of the day, this recipe is about making dinner fun and delicious while sneaking in nutrition. It's about creating positive associations with beans and vegetables. And it's about giving parents a tool for those nights when everyone's tired and you need something that works for the whole family.
Pizza beans deliver on all counts, fun, delicious, nutritious, and approved by the toughest critics: kids.
*A Note On Our Recipes:
Every recipe here was developed and tested using farm-fresh beans from Foodocracy and Primary Beans. Older beans, anything past a year in your pantry or beans from other sources may need more coaxing. Give them a soak and add extra cooking time, and they'll get there eventually.
Related Recipes
The Heirloom Bean + Grain club
Learn More
Get impossible to find beans and grains shipped direct to your doorstep each month from small family farms.
Support small family farms
Shop Now
We support small, family owned farms across the nation. Did you know that farmers only make an average of 10 cents on every dollar you spend at the supermarket? Working directly with farms and not middle men ensures that more money goes back to the people actually growning your food.