Bean and lentil dinners for busy weeknights
Last updated October 3, 2026
Three Nourishible recipes put beans, chickpeas or lentils at the centre of a weeknight dinner without a long cook: a sausage and chickpea stew, a red lentil pasta sauce and a three-bean chilli. Their listed times are 20, 35 and 45 minutes, and none needs a pulse soaked or cooked beforehand. Pick by the time you have and the number you are feeding.
| Dinner | Listed time | Serves | Pulse | Shop for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spicy sausage and chickpea stew | 20 min | 4 | 400 g tinned chickpeas | Spicy pork sausages, red onion, garlic, fresh chilli, tinned tomatoes, baby spinach |
| Red lentil bolognese pasta | 35 min | 2 | ⅔ cup dry red lentils | Rigatoni, onion, ginger, tomatoes, carrot, bouillon cube, vegan green pesto, baby spinach |
| Vegetarian three-bean chili | 45 min | 6 | Three 15 oz tins: black, kidney, pinto | Onion, two peppers, carrots, celery, garlic, spices, tomato paste, a 28 oz tin of tomatoes, green chillies, vegetable broth |
Times are the totals on each recipe page. The stew's page calls its 20 minutes and four servings estimates, so allow a little longer.
Sausage and chickpea stew
This is the quickest, and the only one with meat. Everything cooks in one frying pan: onion, garlic and chilli for a minute, then cumin and the crumbled sausage for two, then the tomatoes, half a can of water and the chickpeas under a lid for four minutes. Spinach goes in at the end. The page lists four servings.
Red lentil bolognese
Red lentils cook straight in the sauce, so there is no separate lentil pot, and the spinach wilts in at the end. The recipe has you cook the rigatoni first and fry the onion and ginger while it boils. The lentils, tomatoes, carrot, bouillon cube and water then simmer, covered, for 15 to 18 minutes before the pasta goes back in, so drain the rigatoni and keep it to one side. With so little water the lentils catch easily, so stir often and add a splash more if the sauce thickens before they soften.
The recipe serves two, which makes it the one for a small household. Check the pesto before you commit: the recipe takes half a cup of vegan green pesto.
Three-bean chilli
The longest of the three, but 30 of its 45 minutes are a simmer you only need to stir now and then, after four to five minutes softening the vegetables. It is the choice for a bigger table or for cooking once and eating twice, since it makes six servings and the page calls it a good batch-cook. Without the sour cream and cheese garnishes the page describes it as vegan.
Six servings is a lot for a small household. Let the pot cool at room temperature, divide it into smaller containers so it cools quickly, and get them into the fridge within one to two hours, as the Food Standards Agency advises. If two of you eat tonight, four portions are left: put two in the fridge for another dinner within 48 hours, and freeze the other two. Defrost those in the fridge, and use them within 24 hours of being fully defrosted (FSA: chilling, freezing and defrosting food). The meal prep guide shows this chilli in a worked week.
Tinned or dried?
Tinned chickpeas and beans are already cooked, and red lentils don't need soaking, which is what keeps these dinners short. Dried beans do need soaking first, and cooking times vary with the pulse and its age (East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust pulses leaflet, issued September 2022).
Dried kidney beans need care. The Food Standards Agency says raw or undercooked red kidney beans can be risky because they contain a natural lectin, and that you should not slow cook them from raw, because that does not destroy the toxin and may increase it (FSA home food fact checker). The chilli uses tinned kidney beans, which the FSA says have been pre-soaked and boiled. If you swap in dried ones, cook them exactly as the packet says.
For a longer lentil dinner, the Mediterranean-style week includes a lentil soup, and what to cook with chickpeas has more for the tin.