Kitchen Garden Forum

Which of the purple/black(ish)/reddish beans hold their colour when cooked?
Yellow ones stay pale, so to have a three colour medly on the plate would make the colours well worth growing.

Hi Stephen,
I've always understood that the purple beans reverted to green when cooked.

Hi Snooky
Yes, I read that in a couple of catalogues. I hoped the KG team might have more extensive knowledge.
But wouldn't it look great if they kept their purple shade?

Whe we grew purple potatoes, we chose a cultivar which retained their colour when cooked. (Shetland Black, I think)

I grew purple podded runner beans a few years ago ,mostly out of curiousity.They are a sport of "Polestar" and are called "Aeron Purple" and can be obtained from this site for a small donation ;-https://aeronvale-allotments.org.uk/
I cannot recall if they stayed purple on cooking but they were a talking point on the allotment site!!

Thank you. I'll trawl through the catalogues over the winter.

I think I will try these: https://marshallsgarden.com/products/french-bean-climbing-purple-cascade-seeds-31210059

It will mean changing from dwarf to climbing, but that is OK. I'll end up with far too many seeds if I order green, yellow & purple but will share them with my volunteering group.

I've stopped growing purple prodded beans. Find however carefully I cook them, they never retain their original colour and go a dirty green shade. The yellow ones have better colour retention but generally go a little paler.

I,m boring now. Just stick to Cobra, although I often have problems with germination.