We haven’t had beans in a while, I was told by my other half. And he’s right, they sure have slipped from the menu into oblivion as the cold weather faded from our memory. Usually I like to make all kinds of dips and things but somehow just did not get to it yet. So to remedy that and since a hot dish really wasn’t gong to cut it, I decided ona white bean salad with simple and fresh flavors: lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper and some parsley. Using baby butter beans, or lima beans for a buttery texture you have to be careful cooking them, since they tend to get butter soft when you cook them. Make sure you don’t over do it, which is easy to do, or you’ll end up with mush=not ideal for salad. You might have to go for dip at that point…
Can be served warm, room temp or from the fridge: tested and tastes good either way!
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb dried baby lima beans, soaked in water overnight (half a pack)
- 1 cup parsley, chopped
- 1 lemon, juice only
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp pepper or to taste (if using canned beans, reduce the salt)
Directions
- Drain beans and add fresh water, then bring to a boil and cook until beans are tender (If you have a pressure cooker, it makes this take so much less time!)
- Drain and cool the cooked beans
- In the meantime make the dressing: juice the lemon and stir in the olive oil, salt and pepper. Note that if you use canned beans or added salt to the cooking water, you may want to reduce the amount, you can always add more…
- Chop the parsley fine and add to the dressing, toss with the beans.
- Grind some fresh pepper over top and serve garnished with lemon slices.
© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade