Seven soups every Saturday: lima bean soup recipes
True confession: I don't really like lima beans. I'm sure it stems from some childhood dread of succotash, my least favorite of all of the vegetable combos my mother would pull out of the freezer for dinner. And it's completely irrational, because I love fava beans, cranberry beans, and almost every other bean that's cooked and seasoned well. Also called butter beans, limas are high in dietary fiber and iron. So, I promise to try harder with lima beans, and what better place to start than with soup?
Seven lima bean soup recipes caught my eye this week:
Baby lima bean soup with chipotle broth, from 101 Cookbooks
Lima bean and artichoke soup, from The Well-Seasoned Cook
Creamy lima bean and tarragon soup, from Je Mange la Ville
Florida butter beans (or lima beans) soup with ham and cabbage, from Kalyn's Kitchen
Fresh lima bean and herb soup, from FatFree Vegan Kitchen
Nine bean soup, from The Joy of Soup
Lima bean and leek soup, from Casa Cullen
Find more delicious lima bean soup recipes with Food Blog Search. Come back every Saturday for seven soup recipes to enjoy any day of the week.
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These beautiful purple bowls come from Gudrun, who blogs at Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks: "Purple Noritake are our every-day dishes. I was so excited when I bought my first set of real, grown up plates!"
If you'd like to share photos of seven soup bowls from your kitchen -- or from a friend's house, or your parents' attic, or an antique shop, or a housewares store, or a school or restaurant -- I'd love to share those photos on Saturdays.
It's easy: send one photo, of seven soup bowls or soup mugs. The bowls must all be able to be used for eating soup, and they absolutely do not have to match. Send the largest file your camera will allow; I'll size it to fit. Make sure the photo is in focus (very important). Tell me whose bowls are in the photo, or where you took the picture. If you're a blogger, I'll link to your blog.
That's it. One photo, seven soup bowls. Email to lydia AT ninecooks DOT com.
I never liked lima beans until a few years ago, but they have grown on me! I agree, soup is the place to start. Use some other ingredients that add a lot of flavor and let the beans stay in the background.
And succotash was also one of my most hated foods from childhood.
I love lima beans. I don't think that people care for them because in the past few years I noticed that they're no longer sold at farmstands. :-(
Oh, I am glad you picked lima beans to pair with the picture of my soup bowls! I was also not a fan, especially of the frozen ones, but then I discovered Rancho Gordo and their line of heirloom dried beans. They have a baby lima that is just fantastic and a beautiful, creamy addition to any soup.
I also found a recipe for Beans and Greens in my Lorna Sass Pressure Perfect book, which has all sorts of suggestions of beans and greens to mix together, and she extols the virtues of the lima.
Pleased to report that I am now a lima fan!
Kalyn, that's great advice. I think I can ease into lima beans. (And wasn't it that frozen succotash mix that we all learned to hate?)
Carole, lima beans definitely have negative associations for many people.
Gudrun, great advice about Rancho Gordo beans. I haven't bought their baby limas, but I do love their beans so much so I'm going to give them a try. And thanks so much for sharing your bowls!
I can't honestly think if I have ever eaten lima beans, but they certainly have a bad reputation in my mind. I agree that soup seems like the easiest way to start using them, but (unfortunately?) lima beans are not to be found in the Middle East, so it will be a while before I get to any of these recipes.
And I agree, those are beautiful bowls--I love the color.
Thanks so much for sharing our friend's soup recipe with your readers!
Cheers - CasaCullen Crew
I hate lima beans and I love the lima bean soup from the New England Soup Factory. Try it- I'm pretty you will like it!
karl