Country-Style Baby Lima Beans

A no-fail Southern recipe for tender baby lima beans (butterbeans) cooked low and slow with bacon.

There’s a local meat-and-three restaurant chain here in my neck of the woods called Lizard’s Thicket that we go to a good bit. It’s the perfect place to go when you’re craving country cooking… especially vegetables!

They offer over 25 vegetables every day (plus daily and seasonal specials) which is why it’s my go-to when we need to pop out for a quick bite to eat.

I should probably point out that they lump other side dishes into their 'vegetable' category and that's fine by me!

They serve actual vegetables like Cabbage, Green Beans, Black-Eyed Peas, Fried Okra, Fried Squash, Baby Limas, Fresh Collards, Okra and Tomatoes, Creamed Corn, Candied Yams, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Grilled Mixed Vegetables, Pickled Beets and Sliced Tomatoes.

And they also offer side dishes like Rice and Gravy, Macaroni and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Cornbread Dressing with giblet gravy, Country Skillet Apples, Applesauce, Sliced Peaches, Alabam’ Slaw, Carrot and Raisin Salad, Potato Salad, Jell-O, Cole Slaw, Squash Casserole and Kale Salad.

Seriously, it's a country girl's dream!

Because I’m used to ordering my favorites (black-eyed peas, squash casserole, macaroni & cheese, cabbage, cornbread dressing, collard greens and/or green beans) I rarely glance at the menu. A few weeks ago, a few of us from the office went for lunch and my work bestie, Brooke, ordered the baby limas.

As soon as she placed her order I got to thinking how long it had been since I’d had some good butterbeans so I changed my order and got some too! They were delicious and I’ve been craving them ever since so I made some this weekend!

I grew up simply calling these 'butterbeans', though I’d certainly know what you meant if you called them 'lima beans', 'baby limas', or 'baby lima beans'. In my family, we just call fresh baby lima beans 'butterbeans' and we call dried butterbeans, well, 'dried butterbeans'.

Over the years with this blog I've learned that different regions of the South have different names for things (cubed steak vs. country style steak vs. chicken fried steak, for example). I think folks in my neck of the woods mostly just call these butterbeans.

They’re all the same beans. The small, green beans are those that are picked early (when they're 'babies') and the larger, whiter beans are just the mature beans which are often dried. I’m going to call these 'baby lima beans' in my recipe to be clear which these are.

This is exactly how I cook fresh peas too. You can use this recipe to cook fresh or fresh-frozen crowder peas, butter peas, black-eyed peas, field peas, speckled butter beans, purple hull peas, pink lady peas, etc.

Try these Three Meat Crock Pot Cowboy Beans with one of these awesome main dishes:

• Crock Pot Pulled Pork –  Perfectly seasoned, tender, juicy pulled pork cooked low and slow in a slow cooker. 
• Sticky Chicken – Marinated slow-roasted chicken pieces braised in a slightly sweet, tangy sauce.
• Fall-Off-The-Bone Baby Back Ribs – Easy, oven-baked ribs cooked low and slow on a bed of onions. 
• Fried Chicken with Gravy – Simple fried chicken marinated in buttermilk with country gravy.
• Barbequed Steaks – Thinly sliced grilled steaks marinated then basted in a homemade barbeque sauce. 

Country-Style Baby Lima Beans

Yield: 8-10 Servings

Author: Mandy Rivers | South Your Mouth

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 15 M

A no-fail Southern recipe for tender baby lima beans (butterbeans) cooked low and slow with bacon.

Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon
• 1 lb. fresh or fresh-frozen baby lima beans
• 4 cups chicken broth or water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)

Instructions

1. Cut bacon into small pieces then cook until crisp in a large saucepan.
2. Add beans then add enough broth or water to cover the beans by a little less than an inch of liquid (you may not need all 4 cups).
3. Cook over medium heat until just boiling then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer beans for 30 minutes.
4. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt then continue cooking for 30 minutes or until beans are very tender (sometimes frozen beans take longer to get tender).
5. Taste for salt then add more if desired.
6. Turn off heat, uncover pan, then let beans rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Notes:

If I have chicken broth, I use it, but water is just as good so long as you have bacon (fatback, ham hocks, smoked turkey wings, etc.) to add flavor.

The amount of salt you need depends on how salty your bacon is and whether you use water or broth. You’ll need at least 1/2 teaspoon and will likely add more.

I don’t salt the beans the first 30 minutes of cooking because salt can sometimes make peas and beans tough.

You don’t want to drown these in water or broth when you’re cooking them but you may want to keep an eye on your pan to make sure you don’t need to add more liquid. The beans need to be submerged the entire time they’re cooking.

Feel free to saute diced onion with the bacon for another layer of flavor.

Once cooked, these can sit on the stove (with no heat) for a looooong time without getting mushy. The longer they set, the better they are! Just bring them back to temperature over low heat when you're ready to eat.

https://www.southyourmouth.com/2018/07/country-style-baby-lima-beans.html

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side dishes, vegetables

american, southern

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