Butter Beans Make Better Baked Beans

About author / Christine Gable

Culinary enthusiast; kids cuisine and slow cooking; magazine recipe developer; professional writer. Her simple recipes are great for family dinners.

That’s precisely what hubby said when I asked him what he thought of this latest crockpot baked bean recipe. After all, it was a recipe that really was inspired by him: Just the other week when he was on vacation (the stay-at-home variety), he decided to accompany daughter and I on our regular grocery store run. That’s when he spotted one of those giant cans of butter beans—a gargantuan 7-pounder—and it got us to thinkin’ about beans of all shapes and sizes: you know, butter beans, Bush’s Beans, Campbell’s pork and beans, deli baked beans, eating too many beans, and on and on …

You know how expensive those delicious deli baked beans are? That little container that one person can wolf down in minutes can sit on the weight scale while the label screams $3 or $4? Holy cow, there’s gotta be a better way, right?

Well, there is indeed. Here’s a way to enjoy those divine deli beans for just a fraction of the cost. If you can find one of those industrial size cans, all the better. For that’s some serious vegetarian protein for less than $1 a pound. And if you make a huge pot of ‘em like we did, you’ll have enough to fill 4 or 5 little Tupperware or Rubbermaid freezable containers … and that means that you’ll be able to pull out deli-fresh baked beans (gotta love the freezer!) for weeks at no extra cost.

Butter beans are aptly named for their buttery flavor and texture—they really are soft and delicate, with a lovely slightly starchy texture. But guess what? Butter beans are really lima beans. And since fresh lima beans are only available in the summer and fall when they’re in season, the rest of the year you’ll have to look for canned or dried varieties.

Lima beans are stellar performers as far as healthy eating goes too, especially in the fiber arena: they contain cholesterol-lowering fiber (meeting 66 percent of your day’s fiber needs), and that’s not all. As a rich source of the trace mineral, molybdenum, lima beans can help your body fend off sensitivity to sulfites, those preservatives found in deli foods and salad bars and wine (Hmmm, does that go hand-in-hand with those deli baked beans too?!). Lima beans will help lower the risk of coronary heart disease, and that’s due to plentiful amounts of folate and magnesium. They help fill your body’s needs for iron and manganese too.

Interestingly, lima beans have been cultivated in Peru for more than 7,000 years but were introduced to the United States only in the 19th century. Apparently there are many varieties of lima beans, but the ones that we’re most familiar with are the Fordhook (aka butterbean) and baby lima bean (oh, they’re so cute—and often more tender!). Limas grow in a flat, oblong pod that’s usually around 3 inches long.

If you’re lucky, you might run across some fresh pods at a local farmers market or farmstand this fall—go ahead and try ‘em: After you shell them, you can cook them until tender in some water—the few times we’ve cooked fresh ones has proven them to be tender and less starchy than their frozen brothers (and I’m certainly not a lima bean lover—in fact, as a kid, I was known to dip them in my water glass to just make them palatable). But for the tenderest, most melt-in-your-mouth variety of all, try the cans. Butter beans really do make better baked beans!

Serves/Makes: 10 cups

• 1 can (7 pound size) butter beans
• 1/2 pound bacon (or use a whole pound if you're feeling decadent)
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 cup molasses