Southern Butter Beans

Fresh, green butter beans. What a southern summer time delight! Served alongside fried chicken with cornbread and sliced tomatoes on the side, butter beans are a perennial favorite at many a southern table.

Now, I’ve read lots of opinions about whether butter beans and lima beans are the same thing. And I still don’t know for sure. They certainly don’t taste anything alike to me. Lima beans, in my opinion, have a horrible mealy quality that I dislike. Butter beans, on the other hand, have a luscious creamy texture. Limas are pale grey to white when cooked and butter beans keep their pretty green color.

When I was growing up, we had a garden most years and we always grew butter beans. They were shelled and cooked fresh during the summer and were also frozen for use the rest of the year. I still “put up” some butter beans almost every summer, so I have them on hand whenever we want them.

These were frozen last summer and still just as delicious as they were fresh.

Old-time southern cooking has a bad reputation when it comes to preparing fresh vegetables. We tend to cook our vegetables for a longer time and season them more highly than other regions of the country. I like them both ways. I like the bright taste of vegetables that are cooked quickly, and I also like the homestyle taste of the longer cooked and more well-seasoned vegetables.  Butter beans are one vegetable that really need the hours long cooking time.

Because of the long cooking time needed for the butter beans, I cook them in a slow cooker. They can happily cook away for the afternoon with little to no attention from me. And, to cut back on the fat, I use chicken bouillon to season with instead of the more traditional salted pork.

Here’s how I do it:

1 quart shelled, fresh or frozen, butterbeans
2 tblsp. butter substitute (such as Butter Buds)
1 ½ tblsp chicken bouillon
1 1/2 tsp Salt
Water

Place butterbeans, butter substitute, chicken bouillon and water to cover in a small slow cooker.  Cook on high for 1 ½ hours. Turn cooker to low and cook for another 2-3 hours or until butterbeans are tender. Add a small amount of additional water during cooking only if needed.

They cooked all afternoon and are still pretty and green and firm. If you can get your hands on some fresh, green southern butter beans (not Limas!), give this method of cooking a try. It also works very well for field peas.

Enjoy!