Ingredient: Butter beans
Category: Vegetables
Season: All:
Butter beans (Phaseolus limensis) is a legume.
Grown for it's seed, which is eaten as a vegetable.
Commonly known as the lima bean or butter bean; it is also known as Haba bean, Pallar bean, Burma bean, Guffin bean, Hibbert bean, Java bean, Sieva bean, Rangood bean, Madagascar bean, Paiga, Paigya, prolific bean, civet bean and sugar bean.
The term butter bean is widely used for a large, flat, and white variety of lima bean.
In the Southern United States the Sieva type are traditionally called butter beans, also otherwise known as the Dixie or Henderson type.
Lima beans and butter beans are seen as two distinct types of beans.
In the United Kingdom, a "butter bean" is a dried bean which can be purchased either to re-hydrate (in the same manner as dried peas) or as canned (tinned) and ready to use.
In culinary use, lima beans and butter beans are distinctly different, the former being small and green, the latter large and yellow.
These are large, flat beans, cream in colour.
Boiled on their own, do tend to be dull; but they make a good thick soup, and are useful if haricot beans are unavailable as they respond well to a well-flavoured vinaigrette dressing with lots of chopped shallots and parsley strewn over.
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