Skillet Butter Bean Recipe with Pizza Cheese & Spinach (2024)

FAQs

Do butter beans need to be soaked before cooking? ›

I tried every cooking method (stovetop, slow cooker, and pressure cooking) when recipe testing Butter Beans and experimented with soaked and dried beans for each method. The combo that produced the best beans was cooking unsoaked beans in the slow cooker.

Nutritionally, both butter and cannellini beans are high in protein and fiber and have very similar nutritional profiles. The only noticeable difference is that butter beans contain a small amount of fat while cannellini beans have none.

Well, rest assured; the two are actually one in the same. There's no difference between lima beans and butter beans, though sometimes they're sold at different stages of maturity. As a matter of fact, our Large Lima Beans packaging actually states Butter Beans in parentheses, just to clarify.

These beans are small, oval, cream in colour and one of the haricot bean family. Available canned or dried, if purchased dried, they must be soaked and cooked prior to use. Butter beans can be used instead of cannellini beans. Uses: Slow-cooked casseroles, especially pork recipes, salads.

Fun Fact: Discarding the soaking water and rinsing beans can help make cooked beans more digestible. Some people choose to save the soaking liquid because some nutrients are leeched from the beans into the liquid during soaking. We prefer to drain our soaking liquid but you can decide what works best for you.

They're available fresh during the late-summer growing season or as fresh-frozen or dried beans year-round. Fresh young beans (sometimes called baby limas) have a thin skin surrounding a pale green bean that can be removed after cooking or left intact, depending on the application.

Even though pulses contain carbohydrates, they don't give sharp rises to blood glucose levels compared to other carbohydrate-containing foods. The make-up of the carbohydrates in pulses, the fibre content and the fact that they are high in protein slows down the breakdown of the carbohydrates into glucose in the blood.

They can help lower cholesterol

High levels of LDL cholesterol make it more likely you'll have heart problems or a stroke. But butter beans can help! One study found that when people ate 120g beans five times per week alongside their usual diet, they experienced a reduction in LDL cholesterol.

In the American South and the United Kingdom, they're butter beans. For the rest of the United States, they're typically called lima, after the bean's origin city of Lima, Peru, where they've grown for over 9,000 years.

Are butter beans the same as great northern? ›

For starters, butter beans grow from the Phaseolus lunatus plant while cannellini beans, like navy, and great northern beans grow from the Phaseolus vulgaris plant.

A lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), also commonly known as butter bean, sieva bean, double bean or Madagascar bean, is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans.

Navy (Pea) Beans

Because they get creamy when cooked, they're perfect for mashing against the side of the pot, pureeing in dips, and thickening soups, stews, ragouts, and more.

Storage. Keep in a cool dry place. Once opened keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Navy beans also make a pretty good alternative to butter beans. Despite their name, the legumes are white. Though they're a little smaller than butter beans, the two share a similar buttery, creamy taste and texture. They have a slight earthiness to them and make a great swap for butter beans in stews and soups.

If you don't have a slow cooker, soak your dried beans in plenty of cold water for at least 8 hours or overnight. Rinse the soaked beans, tip them into a large, heavy pan, and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 10cm.

You can cook them perfectly well without soaking. They will just take about 20 - 30 minutes longer to cook. However, the best reason to soak them is because you can add salt to the soaking water and that will make the beans much better. Also add a small amount of baking soda.

Quick Soak: This is the fastest method. In a large pot, add 6 cups of water for each pound (2 cups) of dry beans. Heat to boiling; boil for 2–3 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and soak for at least 1 hour.

An overnight soak before boiling is the default method because hydrating beans before cooking improves their quality, plus eliminates some of the starches that cause gassiness. But, an 8-hour overnight bath isn't always convenient. Enter quick-soaking, a technique that will shave about 7 hours off your task.