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Swaps for Black beans
Black beans is 132 kcal, 8.9 g protein and 8.7 g fibre per 100 g. Here are the 58 alternatives in legumes that beat it on at least one of those, with the difference for each.
LegumesTypical portion: 1 cup cooked227 kcal per portion
Where black beans sits in its own category
The median food in legumes is 132 kcal per 100 g. Black beans is 0 kcal above that, so it is at the heavier end of its own shelf before any swap is considered. A typical portion of 1 cup cooked weighs about 172 g and carries 227 kcal, 15.3 g of protein and 15.0 g of fibre. Every difference below is applied to that same portion, so the tables compare like with like.
Lower in calories
| Alternative | kcal/100 g | vs Black beans | Protein | Fibre | kcal saved per portion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonfat soymilk | 28 | −104 | 2.5 | 0.2 | −179 |
| Light soymilk | 30 | −102 | 2.4 | 0.3 | −175 |
| Silk fiber soymilk | 41 | −91 | 2.5 | 2.1 | −157 |
| Silk plain soymilk | 41 | −91 | 2.9 | 0.4 | −157 |
| Silk vanilla soymilk | 41 | −91 | 2.5 | 0.4 | −157 |
| Azumaya silken tofu | 43 | −89 | 4.8 | 0.2 | −153 |
| Low-fat soymilk | 43 | −89 | 1.7 | 0.8 | −153 |
| Nonfat chocolate soymilk | 44 | −88 | 2.5 | 0.2 | −151 |
| Soy milk (enhanced) | 45 | −87 | 2.9 | 0.4 | −150 |
| Light chocolate soymilk | 47 | −85 | 2.1 | 0.7 | −146 |
Swapping to the lightest of these 3 times a week is about 537 kcal a week and 27 905 kcal a year, holding everything else constant. That last clause is doing a lot of work: appetite, portion size and what you eat later all move, and none of that is in this multiplication. Read it as the size of the lever, not as a forecast of anything about your body.
Higher in protein
| Alternative | Protein/100 g | vs Black beans | kcal/100 g | kcal per g protein | Protein per portion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soy protein isolate | 88.3 | +79.4 | 335 | 4 | 151.9 |
| Defatted peanut flour | 52.2 | +43.3 | 327 | 6 | 89.8 |
| Meat extender | 41.7 | +32.8 | 311 | 7 | 71.7 |
| Meatless bacon bits | 32.0 | +23.1 | 476 | 15 | 55.0 |
| Peanuts | 25.8 | +16.9 | 567 | 22 | 44.4 |
| Papad | 25.6 | +16.7 | 371 | 14 | 44.0 |
| Peanut spread | 24.8 | +15.9 | 650 | 26 | 42.7 |
| Chunky peanut butter | 24.1 | +15.2 | 589 | 24 | 41.5 |
| Meatless chicken | 23.6 | +14.7 | 224 | 9 | 40.6 |
| Vegetarian fillets | 23.0 | +14.1 | 290 | 13 | 39.6 |
Black beans costs 15 kcal per gram of protein. That ratio is usually more useful than the protein column on its own, because a food can be high in protein and high in everything else at the same time.
Higher in fibre
| Alternative | Fibre/100 g | vs Black beans | kcal/100 g | Fibre per 100 kcal | Fibre per portion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carob flour | 39.8 | +31.1 | 222 | 17.9 | 68.5 |
| Papad | 18.6 | +9.9 | 371 | 5.0 | 32.0 |
| Meat extender | 17.5 | +8.8 | 311 | 5.6 | 30.1 |
| Defatted peanut flour | 15.8 | +7.1 | 327 | 4.8 | 27.2 |
| Chickpea flour | 10.8 | +2.1 | 387 | 2.8 | 18.6 |
| Meatless bacon bits | 10.2 | +1.5 | 476 | 2.1 | 17.5 |
How a swap is worked out
A swap here is a comparison, not a recommendation. For any food, the page takes every other food in the same category of the database and sorts it three ways: lower energy per 100 g, higher protein per 100 g, and higher fibre per 100 g. Each table shows the alternative’s own figure and the difference against the food you started with, so you can see the size of the change rather than a verdict.
Staying inside one category is what makes the comparison mean anything. Swapping a cheese for a cucumber saves a lot of calories and does not replace the cheese; swapping a cheese for a lighter cheese might. The category boundary is the database’s own, and every alternative links to its full page so you can check the numbers rather than take them from a table.
The candidate list is filtered mechanically to plainly-named foods: no comma in the name, at most three words in the identifier, and no cooking, canning, drying or reconstitution qualifier. That removes the long laboratory variants of the same food and leaves the entries you would recognise in a shop. It also means a swap table is a subset of the category, not all of it.
The weekly arithmetic is deliberately plain multiplication. A saving per portion, times three times a week, times fifty-two weeks. It is what the numbers say, and it assumes you change nothing else — which is exactly the assumption that usually fails in practice.
These are per-100 g database averages for whole foods, not a diet plan. Energy is only one property of a food: protein, fibre, salt, cost, satiety and whether you will actually eat it all matter, and none of them is settled by a calorie column. Nothing here is medical or dietary advice and nothing here is a diagnosis. If you are managing a condition, an allergy or a prescribed diet, speak to a clinician or a registered dietitian.
Source: USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy family — per-100 g values for Black beans and every alternative above · checked 2026-09-02
Other swap pages
Tempeh
192 kcal, 20.3 g protein and 0.0 g fibre per 100 g.
Soybeans
172 kcal, 18.2 g protein and 6.0 g fibre per 100 g.
Soy milk
54 kcal, 3.3 g protein and 0.6 g fibre per 100 g.
Peanut butter
598 kcal, 22.2 g protein and 5.0 g fibre per 100 g.
Peanuts
567 kcal, 25.8 g protein and 8.5 g fibre per 100 g.
Chickpeas
164 kcal, 8.9 g protein and 7.6 g fibre per 100 g.
All swap pages · Full nutrition for black beans
Frequently asked questions
What can I eat instead of black beans?
The lightest comparable food in legumes is nonfat soymilk at 28 kcal per 100 g, which is 104 kcal less than black beans. On a 172 g portion that is a difference of 179 kcal.
What would swapping three times a week add up to?
About 537 kcal a week and 27 905 kcal a year, if you made that one substitution 3 times a week and changed nothing else. It is multiplication, not a prediction about your body weight.
Are these the only alternatives?
They are the plainly-named foods in the legumes category of this database — 64 candidates in total, of which 58 beat black beans on energy, protein or fibre. Cooked, canned and dried variants are deliberately left out of the tables to keep them readable.
A swap only counts if you make it
Log both versions in TempoLife for a fortnight and the difference shows up in your own numbers rather than in a table.