Black Bean Nutrition Facts for a Cooked Half Cup

Black beans can appear in bowls, soups, wraps, and other meals, but a useful nutrition reference needs a specific preparation. This guide describes mature black beans boiled without salt. The reference portion is a cooked half cup weighing 86 grams. It does not describe dry beans, a canned product with liquid, refried beans, or a completed black bean recipe with added ingredients. For that cooked portion, the calculated USDA values are approximately 114 calories, 7.6 grams of protein, and 7.5 grams of dietary fiber. These facts describe one component of a meal plan. They do not establish a personal protein or fiber target, and they do not guarantee a particular effect on appetite or body weight. A varied eating pattern involves more than the numbers for one ingredient. The source is USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, food 173735, “Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt.” The database gives a cooked cup weight of 172 grams; half of that is 86 grams. Its per-100-gram nutrient values are 132 calories, 8.86 grams of protein, and 8.7 grams of fiber. Multiplying by 0.86 produces the displayed portion, with whole-calorie and one-decimal gram rounding. For consistent planning, measure the beans after cooking when using this entry. Dry beans have a different concentration because they have not yet absorbed cooking water. A dry package weight should therefore be matched to dry data, not multiplied by these cooked values. If you calculate a whole recipe from dry ingredients, use that method throughout and divide the finished batch into its stated portions. Canned black beans are another preparation. Check the label for the serving weight, packing liquid, and ingredients. A drained serving is not necessarily the same basis as the contents of an undrained can. Products prepared with sauces or seasoning also need their own information. This card makes no claim that every canned or seasoned bean product matches the unsalted boiled reference. To reuse black beans across a meal plan, keep the plain ingredient separate from the additions in each dish. A soup may include broth and vegetables, while a wrap also includes its bread and fillings. These examples are not calculated menus. To estimate a complete serving, record every ingredient quantity and the number of portions. The bean values alone cannot represent the whole meal. The half cup is an educational reference rather than a required serving. Choose an amount that fits the meal, then scale all nutrient values consistently if you are calculating a different weight. Keeping the preparation and portion explicit makes the information useful without turning everyday food into a rigid rule. Source: USDA FoodData Central, https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/173735/nutrients.