Everybody has a few favorite foods. You love chocolate, or fresh French bread, or oysters , hours old, straight from the sand flats of the salty windy beach. I love lima beans. Yes, you heard me right, lima beans; those sweet, plump baby beans ( or its cousin, butter beans, available in the North only in cans), silky, tender, and evocative of Brancusi's sculptures.I just looked up the history of lima beans and was shocked to find they are a veritable powerhouse in the fight against heart disease and high cholesterol. Who knew? To me, they're simply a favored dinner, now that the herds of hungry teenagers in the kitchen are gone, who much preferred steak, chicken, and desserts.
To those who have had too many forkfuls of overcooked, enormous limas, I will tell you the secret - buy frozen, baby lima beans, barely cook very briefly in a little water just until they're plump and warmed, and then mix ever so gently with unsalted butter ( just a teaspoon), a little salt and pepper, and that's it.
I've used them very few times in recipes: fresh green cabbage with limas and turkey meatballs and thyme soup, or succotash, but that's about it. Most of the time I tuck up with my warm little bowl of lima beans, sweet melted butter, and sea salt and freshly cracked pepper and blissedly dig in.
4 comments:
i love lima beans too!
the simple way of putting salt and pepper is also my favorite too!
Pleased to know another fan, lululu! Sooo many people grimace when I mention lima beans - I just tell them they're missing out on a good thing; - and that they need to learn how to cook them the right way.
LOVE Lima Beans.... LOVE LOVE LOVE, but here's a question: fresh or frozen? My father always insisted you had to have fresh... would love to know what others think
chateau - no choice where I live! I get frozen baby limas, cook very briefly ( that's the secret), and voila - fresh tasting baby limas!
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