Here’s one thing you won’t find in Steve Sando’s pantry: canned beans. Sando, the founder of Rancho Gordo, the renowned Napa, Calif.-based purveyor of heirloom beans, has no use for them.

“I’m going to sound like a snob, but no,” he said. “The thing is, you have to rinse them because they’re cooked in the can and I’m not saying it’s dangerous, but I don’t know. I think it’s yucky. And most instructions for cooking canned beans have you rinse the muck off because it’s not pleasurable. But when you cook beans, it’s free soup. It’s a completely different animal.”

Sando, along with Rancho Gordo’s general manager Julia Newberry, recently published their new cookbook, “The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen.” It’s Sando’s seventh book, what he describes as being a bean bible.

At first he was figuring that it would be a sort of greatest hits, but then he realized it was actually a book that took 25 years to write, redoing old favorites and bringing in new recipes. He says the recipes are partly his, partly Newberry’s, and the rest are guest recipes.

After years of selling his beans at farmers markets and then at shops and now also online, Sando recognizes home cooks’ resistance to cooking beans from scratch.

“I think they look at them and see little rocks,” he said. “If you’re not an experienced home cook, I think you sometimes think, well, there’s no way I’m going to turn that into something creamy and delicious. They’re very intimidating. And also it’s an investment in time. You think it takes forever. You think it’s fussy. And there are a lot of rules, it seems.

“Of course, once you do it, you realize it’s stupid time,” he added. “You could be doing a million other things as you’re doing it. The rules actually aren’t so exact. So everyone should do it. The benefits are just so superior to a canned bean.”

Making beans from scratch means you can control the flavor and texture. You can use the bean water for broth, for making rice — or even an aperitif. Sando actually offers dinner guests a shot glass filed with bean broth, topped with chopped red onion, a pinch of oregano, and dash of fresh lime or lemon juice.

I have to say, after preparing black garbanzo beans for the book’s Black Garbanzo Hummus, I was ready to hold on to some of the beans and their broth to enjoy as soup — the broth was so sumptuous from the garlic, celery, carrot and onion that I had sauteed to cook the beans in.

“The Bean Book” has a thorough section on how to make a basic pot of beans — a useful reference, since the book’s recipes start with prepared beans. His scratch recipe is very simple but worth reading.

Essentially, start with good quality beans that have been harvested within the past two years, check for small stones and other debris, and rinse well. In a pot with plenty of headroom, saute aromatics — diced onion and minced garlic, and diced carrots and celery if you like — in olive oil until soft, then add the beans, maybe a bay leaf, and cover with water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and boil for 15 minutes, then reduce to a simmer and cook until they’re just soft, adding more boiling water if needed. Then add salt and finish simmering until done — meaning you can go do something else around the house.

“The Bean Book” also details other bean cooking methods: in a pressure cooker, cooking in clay, slow cooking, and oven cooking.

No matter the bean or method, you’ll find at the end that you have a delicious bowl of bean soup.

Depending on the dish you’re preparing, you can drain the liquid (and use it some other way) and your beans are now ready for anything from a dip to a salad, for patties or even pie. Or keep the liquid and add more ingredients for soup or stew.

Not sure what types of beans you want? “The Bean Book” has a helpful illustrated section on 50 heirloom varieties, their origins, their flavor profiles, and how to use them, including which to use for recipes in the book.

For instance, my favorite bean — the petite Alubia Blanca, virtually international — is creamy with a thin skin, perfect for the book’s Alubia Blancas With Clams and Spanish Chorizo. I keep it simple. They’re my go-to, prepared as discussed above, but with the addition of sliced fennel, and added to soups, enjoyed as a base for stewed chicken, or tossed with roasted shrimp. How about the red Domingo Rojo? Or a minty green Flageolet, purple and cream Good Mother Stallard or beautifully deep dark Santanero Negro Delgado beans from Oaxaca?

We’ve got three recipes from “The Bean Book” that are a good mix of the types of bean-focused dishes you can prepare — and do so easily.

The first is that hummus dish I mentioned, Black Garbanzo Hummus. Chef Julia Newberry surprised Sando with the recipe. Surprised because black garbanzos are heavier and denser than traditional garbanzos, and the color, Sando thought, would be too odd. But it’s been a hit. Sando is not a bean soaker, but because of that heaviness and density, Newberry insists that the beans be soaked at least six hours. And, unlike traditional hummus, you use garlic confit instead of raw garlic, making it a gentler version. Sando recommends doubling the garlic confit recipe so you can use the rest for other dishes. Also, garnish the dip with black sesame seeds or nigella seeds and perhaps some parsley.

While it is spring, there’s still a bit of a chill in the evening. So, try the Polenta With Borlotti Beans and Tomato Sauce. While you should aim for using Borlotti Lamon beans, you can also use Cranberry beans. You’ll make a quick tomato sauce, then add the cooked beans. While they’re cooking, make the polenta according to package instructions. There’s an option to include diced, browned pancetta as well. To serve, spoon the polenta into a bowl, then ladle the bean tomato sauce over the polenta, and top with pancetta, fresh basil and grated Parmesan.

Finally, in celebration of spring, is a rich Raw Asparagus and Runner Bean Salad inspired by Joshua McFadden’s salad in his “Six Seasons” cookbook. Here, asparagus is paired with runner beans.

“These are bean plants that shoot off runners and need to be on a trellis. It’s the oldest cultivated vegetable in the Americas and they tend to be big and meaty,” explained Sando. “But if you keep pushing them [while cooking] they get incredibly creamy and also have kind of a beefy bean broth. It’s a great gateway bean for people who are trying to cut back on meat.”

These are beans like Ayocote Morado, Ayocote Negro, and Scarlet Runner. Cook and drain them. Toast breadcrumbs and walnuts. Slice the asparagus very thin, like ribbons. You’ll combine the bread crumbs and walnuts with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, lemon zest, mint, and salt and pepper in your serving bowl. In another bowl combine the asparagus with the beans, lemon juice and olive oil. Just before serving, add the asparagus-bean mixture to the serving bowl and toss well, adding more lemon juice, olive oil or salt to your taste.

One trick Sando mentioned with either refrigerated leftover beans or beans cooked up in advance for a dish is to bring them to room temperature and then strain them. You’ll find less liquid clings to them. You don’t want a salad or other dishes to be too wet with bean broth. Also, remember that beans in their broth freeze well.

Recipes and photos reprinted with permission from “The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen” by Steve Sando with Julia Newberry (2024, Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC).