Creating your own ranch-style beans recipe? Here are 7 ranch-style beans substitution items to help you create the perfect dish.

Ranch-style beans are made with a unique combination of ingredients, including pinto beans, chile, cumin, tomatoes, and oregano. They combine to create a very distinct taste that pairs well with popular dishes like street tacos, ranch huevos, and even chili.

However, outside of Texas, acquiring this famous bean dish ready-made might be difficult, which is why some cooks create their own. Obviously, this has advantages in that you can build in batches and, let’s be honest, it’s a lot more fun.

But we’ve all been in a scenario when we couldn’t locate a key ingredient, and for a meal as precise as ranch style beans, this may sometimes appear to mean the end of your culinary efforts.

Today, we’ve compiled a list of the finest ranch style beans substitution components to help you out of a bind.

Kidney Beans

We’re starting with the most important element in every bean recipe: the beans themselves.

Ranch beans are delicious because pinto beans have their own particular taste. However, they are not always easy to get outside of Texas. So we need to develop a replacement that is as similar to the actual thing as feasible.

Here come the kidney beans. Both the light and dark red forms of the popular bean are excellent substitutes, closely resembling the occasionally elusive pinto in taste and texture. They have enough flavor to not be overpowered by the other components, yet they are full enough to serve as the recipe’s centerpiece.

Chilies

Anyone who is familiar with cooking would recognize that there are so many chili kinds available, many of which are tremendously diverse in both intensity and taste, that it would be dangerous to substitute one for another.

However, with ranch beans, we were looking for a smoky taste. This begins to narrow our possibilities and directs us toward ancho chilies.

These are readily available in whole or powder form, and both are suitable for creating ranch beans. However, if you use them whole, be careful to remove the seeds; we don’t want our ranch beans to be too hot!

Tomatoes

This may sound a little foolish, since you’re unlikely to have trouble finding them at your local shop, but if you’re preparing these on the spur of the moment at home and don’t have any fresh tomatoes on hand, it’s a good idea to have a backup.

Canned tomatoes are obviously OK (just make sure to drain them), but as a last option, you may use tomato paste or even ketchup.

Many people will be offended by this, but ketchup may be an acceptable (emphasis on acceptable) substitute for tomatoes.

Just be cautious since some ketchup brands contain a lot more sugar than others, and we don’t want our bean dish to be overly sweet.

Cumin

One of my favorite spices, yet one that is often out of stock. Cumin imparts a lovely smokiness to everything it is put to, and it is this property that makes it difficult to find a suitable counterpart.

However, if you are out of the magical spice, there are a handful of items that will rescue you.

Powdered coriander may help you out. I realize not everyone likes coriander, therefore caraway seeds will work just as well.

Onion and Garlic

Again, it is uncommon that you will run out of either, but it can happen, so it is always a good idea to have a backup on hand.

As in many other dishes, onion and garlic give ranch beans their tang and so play an important role.

We prefer fresh, but if you don’t have any, powdered versions of either are a terrific substitute. Because we’re more interested in the taste that both give than in their texture.

Sweetener

It’s also worth noting that if you used ketchup as a tomato substitute, you should definitely restrict the quantity of sugar you use in this recipe; otherwise, it’ll be way too, well, sweet.

Most ranch bean recipes will ask for brown sugar, which is an excellent addition since it not only thickens the sauce but also complements the heat of the chiles.

While unrefined sugar is an acceptable substitute, I like molasses since it thickens the sauce excellently. Just a word of caution: Use just as much as you need. Work it in carefully since you will only need a tiny bit.

Oregano

This, like cumin, is difficult to replace. Its peculiar taste definitely sets it apart.

I won’t lie: it’s tough to find a flavor-for-flavor substitute, but you can get by with basil or thyme.

Just be cautious if you’re considering both cumin and oregano. Replacing both may result in an unusual taste in your beans, so try replacing only one.