Lima Beans / Butter Beans (Dried)

Lima Beans / Butter Beans (Dried): Nutrition and Complete Cooking Guide

Lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) — known in Britain as butter beans, reflecting their creamy, unctuous texture when cooked — are one of the most ancient cultivated legumes in the Americas, with evidence of cultivation in Peru dating back to at least six thousand years ago. The name "lima" reflects their original association with Lima, Peru, from where they were distributed globally by Spanish colonial trade in the sixteenth century. Large dried lima beans — sold as butter beans in British supermarkets — have a distinctively flat, wide shape and a rich, mealy, buttery texture when cooked that no other pulse quite replicates. In Britain, butter beans in a creamy mustard sauce or braised slowly with ham are classic pub and home-cooking preparations. In Greece, gigantes plaki — giant butter beans baked in tomato sauce with olive oil — is one of the great vegetable dishes of Greek cuisine. In the American South, butter bean recipes with pork are important traditional dishes.

Nutritional Value and Cooking

Dried large lima beans provide 338 kcal and 21.5 g of protein per 100 g, with 63.4 g of carbohydrates and 19 g of fibre. Outstanding for folate, manganese, copper, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and thiamine. Cooked: approximately 115 kcal and 7.8 g protein per 100 g. Soak overnight, simmer sixty to ninety minutes until very tender — lima beans are noticeably more fragile than other beans and can break apart if overcooked. For gigantes plaki: bake soaked lima beans in a tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic, and herbs at 180°C for ninety minutes — one of the most satisfying bean dishes imaginable. For butter beans in sauce: sauté with onion and garlic in butter, add cream or crème fraîche, season with mustard and herbs.