Calories in Beans, Dry, Cranberry (0% moisture)

What makes beans so powerful?

Cranberry beans, known as borlotti in Italy and romano in Portugal, are a cultivar of Phaseolus vulgaris prized for a seed coat splashed with deep red streaks over a cream background. Those markings come from anthocyanin pigments localized in the epidermal layer of the seed coat. When heated in water, the pigments leach into the cooking liquid and the beans shift to a uniform pale brown-pink — a visual transformation that signals the starch granules inside have fully gelatinized. The USDA's 0% moisture designation is an analytical convention: it reports nutrient values as if all water were removed, creating a standardized basis for comparing different bean varieties. Real shelf-stable dry beans typically retain 10–12% moisture, so the figures here represent concentrated dry-matter composition rather than what you'd measure straight from a bag. Cranberry beans are nutritionally notable for delivering over 24 g of protein per 100 g on this dry-matter basis while keeping fat below 1.3 g, making them one of the leaner protein sources in the legume family.