Dry green split peas buy you 73.9 grams of protein and 71.0 grams of fiber for every dollar, a combined 144.9 grams. Dry pinto beans, the bag this ranking used to hand the trophy to, land at 57.6 grams of protein and 41.7 grams of fiber, 99.3 combined, from a $6.75 four pound bag. In this ten-food lineup, the peas take it.
Here’s where this came from. We ran two separate grocery studies, one ranking foods by protein per dollar and one by fiber per dollar, and the dry goods aisle ran away with both. So this piece crosses the two datasets and scores 10 beans and lentils on the combined number: total grams of protein and fiber per dollar, added together. Simple math, slightly rude results.
| Food | Protein per $1 | Fiber per $1 | Combined per $1 | Package |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green split peas (dry) | 73.9 g | 71.0 g | 144.9 g | 16 oz bag, $1.42 |
| Brown lentils (dry) | 77.7 g | 33.7 g | 111.4 g | 16 oz bag, $1.44 |
| Navy beans (dry) | 59.9 g | 41.1 g | 101.0 g | 2 lb bag, $3.38 |
| Black beans (dry) | 58.0 g | 41.6 g | 99.6 g | 2 lb bag, $3.38 |
| Pinto beans (dry) | 57.6 g | 41.7 g | 99.3 g | 4 lb bag, $6.75 |
| Chickpeas (dry) | 56.7 g | 33.8 g | 90.5 g | 16 oz bag, $1.64 |
| Red lentils (dry) | 56.0 g | 25.3 g | 81.3 g | 16 oz bag, $1.94 |
| Canned black beans | 30.1 g | 34.4 g | 64.5 g | 15.5 oz can, $0.88 |
| Canned kidney beans | 23.4 g | 19.3 g | 42.7 g | 15.5 oz can, $0.98 |
| Canned chickpeas | 22.0 g | 19.7 g | 41.7 g | 15.5 oz can, $0.98 |
Source: USDA FoodData Central + single-store and BLS prices, July 2026. Full methodology at /methodology/.
The canned rows carry a fiber score now, and they still don’t catch the dry bags.
Which beans deliver the most protein and fiber per dollar?
Split peas, and the gap from first place to the last can is about 3.5x. The top of the table is all bags. Widen the lens past legumes and the dry goods aisle still runs the full plant protein ranking.
Split peas don’t merely edge the pintos on fiber. They deliver 71.0 grams of fiber per dollar against 41.7, and a bag costs $1.42. That’s the cheapest entry ticket on the whole list. If you’ve only ever met split peas in a pot of split pea soup, that’s still the correct move, it just happens to be a financially brilliant one too.
Black beans take fourth at 99.6 combined grams per dollar, a hair ahead of the pintos, and they’re the most forgiving bean here for people who don’t love beans yet. Black bean tacos on a Tuesday don’t feel like a budget decision. Neither do black bean brownies once the cocoa gets involved. That’s the trick.
Why do dry beans still beat the can?
Dry pinto beans: 57.6 grams of protein per dollar. Canned black beans, the best can we scored: 30.1. The bag buys about 1.9 times the protein per dollar. You’re paying for someone else to add water.
Same story inside a single food. Dry chickpeas score 56.7 grams of protein per dollar; canned chickpeas score 22.0. That’s over two and a half times the value for the version that asks you to plan ahead by one evening, and we ran that matchup bean by bean in what the convenience of the can actually costs, where every dry bag beat every can.
I’m not going to pretend cans are a mistake. A canned bean at 30.1 grams of protein per dollar is still a solid buy, one can carries about 26.5 grams of protein, and some nights the can opener is the only kitchen skill you have left. Keep a few on the shelf. Just don’t let them be the whole strategy when a $1.42 bag of split peas is doing 144.9 combined grams per dollar and a $6.75 bag of pintos is doing 99.3.
Which bean should you actually cook first?
Buy the split peas for the math, but cook whatever you’ll actually eat, because a bag that sits in the pantry scores zero.
Brown lentils are the gateway. No soaking, quick cooking, and at 111.4 combined grams per dollar they’re second on this list and still well ahead of anything canned. Red lentils dissolve into sauces, which is why a red lentil curry tastes rich without you doing anything fancy, and at 81.3 combined grams per dollar the indulgence is imaginary.
Chickpeas are the snack play. At 90.5 combined grams per dollar from a $1.64 bag, roasted chickpeas are what I hand people who say they hate beans. Crunchy, salty, gone by Wednesday.
How did we calculate these numbers?
Nutrient values come from USDA FoodData Central. Prices are July 2026 US figures: BLS average prices where a dried-bean series exists, and audited Walmart listings where it doesn’t. The combined score is just protein grams per dollar plus fiber grams per dollar. No weighting, no adjustments, one addition problem.
For scale: the FDA’s Daily Values are 28 grams of fiber and 50 grams of protein. One dollar of dry pintos buys 41.7 grams of fiber, about one and a half times that fiber benchmark, and 57.6 grams of protein, a bit more than one labeling day. One dollar of split peas buys 71.0 grams of fiber, about two and a half times the fiber benchmark. Those DVs are label math, not personal targets, but they make the point. It’s the same single-dollar lens we used on the 15 cheapest fiber foods in the store.
If you want to see what this looks like as an actual grocery week, the fiber on a budget guide builds the full plan, and what 30 grams of fiber costs per day runs the daily math. If you’d rather split the dollar between a bag of beans and a bag of grain, the cheapest complete protein pairs scores 20 of those combinations. The beans will be waiting. They’re shelf-stable like that.
