Expert Shares the Best Vegan Food Item to Purchase From Target — and It Costs Less Than $1

Beans are often hailed as nutritional heroes packed with protein power. However, the walls that fortify these proteins are “semi-permeable membranes.” This means, when soaked in water, the water outside seeps through these membranes inside the beans, causing them to swell and puff up. In a recent trend, food lovers are flocking to Target to purchase bean packets and make a lip-smacking recipe of puffed beans. Halle Burns (@ballehurns), whose recipes are followed by millions on TikTok, shared with Food & Wine that her pantry is always stocked with beans she purchases from Target.

In one of her TikTok videos, Burns revealed an easy puffed beans recipe she invented using lima beans from Good & Gather Beans. According to the product page, one 12 oz. packet of these beans costs just $1.79. In the reviews section, one mom shared that her kid is obsessed with eating these beans after she watched A Bad Case of Stripes, where the main character, Camilla Cream, harbors a secret fondness for lima beans.

Burns, a recipe creator and author of the cookbook Call Me Vegan, shared with Food & Wine, that she usually buys beans from Target, especially the affordable varieties of chickpeas, black beans, or cannellini beans and enjoys them “rinsed and raw, or air fried with lemon juice, sea salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.” In this video, she whipped up a bowl of air-fried puffed lima beans. “Have you ever puffed your beans? You should,” she said to her 2.4 million followers.

“I am using dry beans,” she said while flashing a red plastic packet of Good & Gather’s Baby Lima Beans on the screen. Upon opening the packet, she poured the beans into a glass bowl and soaked them overnight in water. “They should double in size,” she told the viewers. Once the beans had swollen into bigger size, she dipped them in a kitchen pan simmering with boiling water. She advised the Target shoppers to “cook them for about 30 minutes” and boil them until tender.

In the next step, Burns transferred the boiled beans, now cooled, into a large green bowl and started adding condiments for flavoring. “Coat them in some oil, some seasoning,” she said, and sprinkled the ingredients in the bowl, while giving them a nice shake. The following frame showed her standing with an air fryer tucked beneath her arm. Her face depicting the right attitude of a chef, she held onto the fryer as the beans inside its container made rumbling and popping sounds. “Bake or air-fry for 15 to 20 minutes,” she described in the video’s overlay caption. “When they’re done, they should be nice and crispy,” she said.

The video panned to reveal the resulting dish – a bowl loaded with crispy yellow golden puffs, smothered and peppered in tantalizing herbs and spices. With a spatula, she transferred the popped puffs into the serving bowl layered with a butter paper. She picked up one pillowy puff from the bowl and tossed it in her mouth, looking straight at the camera to express the gastronomical delight she felt. “Those puffed beans look yummy,” commented @Laura.

Thousands of other viewers chimed in the comments section to share suggestions for spice and condiment pairings for Burns to experiment with, including lemon, chilli, butter, and garlic. @peeptini, a user belonging to the “lemon-and-salt” party, said, “They’re called ‘Avas.’ I’m from Peru, and they taste so good when they’re burnt to a crisp and taste better with lemon + salt.” Many of them took the side of the “chile-and-lemon” party, particularly viewers from Mexico.

Others shared their fondness for trying similar recipes with beans like chickpeas and garbanzo beans. “This is my favorite way to eat chickpeas. After roasting, I keep them in a jar and sprinkle them on salads like croutons,” said @Lykealibra. @keanu said, “Air-fried or baked garbanzo beans are so good! especially if you let them get crunchy.”

You can follow Halle Burns (@ballehurns) on TikTok for recipe and food videos.