Lima Bean

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This light starter reinvents the classic side dish of lima beans and corn.

Serve these beans with bread to sop up the juices.

A spicy spin on the classic side dish. Any leftovers make an excellent omelet filling when paired with turkey and Monterey Jack cheese.

This salad is dressed with a red pepper and tomato sauce.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Ragoût de petits L
égumes au Parmesan et Vinaigre Balsamique Also nice as a meatless entrée—with some crusty French bread, of course.

If you prep all the ingredients ahead of time, this dish takes only minutes to cook.

Giant beans in some form or another are never absent from Greek meze menus. The key to making this dish taste as good as possible is to use high-quality roasted sweet peppers preserved in extra virgin olive oil. I usually make my own oil, and have them on hand. All you need to do is roast the peppers whole under the broiler, let them cool, peel them, and store them in a container in the fridge covered with good olive oil. You can pour a few tablespoons of the pepper-infused oil into the baking dish for added flavor. As for the beans themselves, the trick is to get the texture right. Giant beans need first to be soaked, then boiled, and finally baked. Once done, they should be soft, almost buttery, without being baked to the point that they fall apart.

The vegetables can be prepared ahead and finished up to the middle of step 3. Heat for 5 minutes before serving.

Make this at least one day and up to two days ahead for best flavor. This is a much simplified version of the classic smoked meat and bean cassoulet.

Dry-cured country ham can be substituted for the hickory-smoked ham called for here.

Try this with ciabatta or whole wheat bread.

In place of the pasta commonly found in Italian bean soups we've used wheat berries — minimally processed whole grains — for the following recipe.

Succotash is a corn and bean dish introduced to the early settlers by Indians. The Yankees most likely used local cranberry beans, a kind of shell bean, but lima beans have become the preferred, readily available substitute. We've also added tomatoes for their bright color and fresh flavor, even though they probably did not enter the New England culinary mainstream until the nineteenth century.