Butter Bean Mash - My Gorgeous Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How long should I soak butter beans for? ›

For long-soaking, soak the beans in a bowl of water at room temperature, overnight or for 8-10 hours. Never soak for longer than 12 hours, or the beans will lose their texture and flavour. For dinner, start soaking in the morning; for lunch, start soaking the night before.

Feel free to add arrowroot or cornstarch if you like it thicker. How do I make a Butter Bean Stew? To make Butter Bean Stew, simply add vegetable broth to this recipe, and more hummus as needed until the desired consistency. You can also add chopped sun-dried tomatoes to pack in more flavor.

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.

In fact, red beans & rice fans have spoken when it comes to their secret ingredients, and quite a few swear by the addition of butter – throughout the cooking process, as well as at the end. The exact amount varies from cook to cook, but when in doubt, you can't go wrong by adding a little more.

Soaking your beans helps them cook faster and more evenly, and it can also make them easier to digest.

If you don't have time to presoak, don't sweat it– your beans will still be tender and delicious. However, there is one exception: if you're starting with old beans that have suffered moisture loss (Primary Beans defines as beans older than 2 years from harvest), a presoak may help you achieve evenly cooked beans.

Unless the recipe tells you to keep the canned beans in their liquid, you should drain your can and give the beans a good rinse before using. This will improve the flavor and texture of your finished dish. Open your cans of beans using a can opener. There may be sharp edges from opening the can.

The liquid in good canned beans is just the water and salt the beans were cooked in… filled with delicious bean flavor. And this liquid is a great thickener for not only the specific dish you're making at the moment, but for any dish that could use some thickening, some salt, and some bean flavor.

Add the beans and the water and stir. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid, and reduce the heat to low. Cook 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how tender you want your beans. Roughly mash about 1/4 of the beans for a creamier texture, adding more water if the beans are too thick.

Butter beans are high in complex carbohydrates. Your body breaks down this type of carbohydrate into glucose at a slower rate than 'simple', refined carbs like potato, white pasta and white rice.

Which is healthier lima beans or butter beans? ›

Lima Beans vs. Butter Beans. 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.

Butter Beans are a fantastically healthy ingredient – they're high in protein and fibre, and they're an excellent source of carbohydrates. Low in fat and calories but high in folate, starch and iron, they're one of the best store cupboard ingredients there is.

Butter beans, or lima beans, are not particularly heat tolerant. Temperatures above 86º F, especially when the relative humidity is low, may cause bloom and pod drop. Any other type of stress will also cause the plant to drop its leaves and pods.

Although you can technically eat beans straight out of the can, even low-sodium varieties can be quite salty, so it's a good idea to drain and rinse them before eating them or cooking with them (unless a recipe specifically says otherwise).

There are three primary reasons why dried beans do not soften despite extensive cooking time: 1) they are old; 2) hard water; or 3) the presence of an acid.

Soak for 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Discard the soaking water, and rinse again. Place in a pot with 3 inches of water covering the beans, bring to a boil, and turn off heat.

To prepare your batch of butter beans

I find that cooking them from dry (ie without pre-soaking) helps prevent them from going soggy, so just tip them into the pot, add plenty of water to cover, a teaspoon of salt and cook until tender. This should take between six and eight hours.

If you prefer to soak your lima beans, place them in a large bowl of water for at least 4 to 8 hours. When ready to cook, drain off the water and follow the cooking directions below, shortening the simmering time as needed.