This Lima Bean Soup recipe is warm and comforting when it’s cold outside! Made with dry lima beans, but you can use canned if you prefer, plus vegetables such as carrots, celery, and leeks. Frugal & delicious!
Lima Bean Soup is an excellent way to feed the family. Our family has been making and enjoying this soup for many years now. Not only is it delicious, but it’s also comforting and frugal. One of the things I love about having soup for dinner is that it’s a one-pot meal. A bowl of this soup and some cornbread or a slice of crusty bread and your meal is complete!
This soup is made with the common ingredients of many soups — such as carrots and celery — but rather than onions, this recipe uses leeks. They are more mellow than onions and add an excellent flavor to the soup. This recipe also uses dry lima beans, which helps to keep this recipe inexpensive.
How to Soak Dry Lima Beans
If you are about to cook this fresh Lima Bean Soup, you may be wondering how you cook those dry beans!
First, go through the beans and remove any that are discolored or look a little funky. Then take the beans and rinse them very well. The next step is to decide how you will take your beans from hard and dry to tender and delicious!
When it comes to cooking your lima beans, there are two important processes. The first one is soaking your limas in water and the second is the actual cooking process. However, while these processes are simple, there are a few different ways you can go about doing each of them.
Option #1: Quick Soaking Lima Beans
For this Lima Bean Soup recipe, we recommend the quick soaking method. This method involves heating up the beans and then letting them soak in the hot water. It’s a great method if you don’t have time to soak overnight. And, this method is perfect for people like me who didn’t plan ahead for soaking overnight! LOL
To use the quick soaking method, place your 1 pound of lima beans in a large pot with 10 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil and boil the lima beans for 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and cover the pot. Let the lima beans soak for 2 – 2 1/2 hours. Drain and rinse beans and return to the pot. From here, you can add the sauteed vegetables, the broth, and make the soup according to the instructions.
To use this method, you’ll put the lima beans in a large bowl or pot that will allow enough room for the beans to double in size. Then, cover the beans with 10 cups of cold water. Cover up the container and put it in the fridge overnight.
When you’re ready to make your soup, drain the water from the beans and rinse them. Put your drained beans in a large pot. From here, you can add the sauteed vegetables, the broth, and make the soup according to the instructions.
How to Thicken Lima Bean Soup
If you like a thicker soup, you have a couple of options:
When I make this Lima Bean Soup recipe, I smash some of the beans with my spoon or a potato masher at the end of the cooking process. You can also blend up some of the beans with an immersion blender.
You can add less of the broth to ensure that your soup is thicker. If you wish to use this option, add only 6 cups of broth at first. Add more broth later for thinning out the soup, if needed.
We hope this Lima Bean Soup is a recipe that your family can enjoy for many years to come. It’s a favorite of ours and will most likely become a favorite in your household too. Let us know what you think!
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Lima Bean Soup
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4.8 from 4 reviews
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Ingredients
Scale
1 pound dry large lima beans
8 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 carrots (chopped)
2 leeks (white bulb only, chopped)
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 stalks celery (chopped)
8 cups chicken broth (two 32 ounce cartons)
Salt & pepper (to taste)
Instructions
Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add lima beans and boil for 5 – 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover. Let beans soak for 2 – 2.5 hours. Drain and rinse beans; return to pot.
In a large pan, heat olive oil and saute all the vegetables until carrots and celery are tender-crisp.
Add 8 cups of chicken broth to the beans in the pot. Add the vegetables. Stir to combine and simmer on low for 1.5 hours; stirring frequently. Season with salt and pepper as desired.
Notes
THICKER SOUP TIPS: If you wish this soup to be thicker, you can add only 6 cups of broth at first. Add more broth later for thinning out the soup, if needed. Another option is to smash some of the beans with a spoon or a potato masher at the end of the cooking process. You can also blend up some of the beans with an immersion blender.
Note: Towards the end of the cooking, I smashed some of the beans a bit with my spoon to help thicken the soup. This is purely optional, but I was happy with the result.
Conclusion. With their high nutritional content, Lima beans have the potential to bring lots to the table. They may improve digestion, heart health, and blood sugar levels, and might even aid in weight loss. However, they must be cooked properly.
Cooking dried lima beans is simple. For a fast cooking time, just soak them in water overnight, drain and cover with fresh water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Simmer for an hour and then use the beans however you'd like! You can also cook these tasty beans in the Slow Cooker or Multi-Cooker.
In a separate bowl, dissolve a teaspoon or two of cornstarch or all-purpose flour in a small amount of cold water.Add the slurry to the bubbling soup. The soup should thicken up. Add more cornstarch or flour as needed until the soup reaches your desired consistency.
There is no difference between lima beans and butter beans, though you can find them for sale at different stages of maturity. The younger green-hued beans, usually identified as baby lima beans, have a starchy texture similar to raw fava beans (which some describe as mealy). You can consume them fresh or cooked.
However, they may contain harmful compounds like anti-nutrients and linamarin, which may cause digestive issues if eaten in high amounts. Always soak raw or dried lima beans before you cook them. Like other legumes, lima beans can enjoyed in moderation as part of a healthy, well-rounded diet.
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.
If you're the impatient, bean-hungry type, you can cook your beans from dry without any soaking at all. Here's the thing: Beans that have not been soaked ahead of time will always take longer to cook, but they will, indeed, cook.
What's interesting to me about this is that along with chickpeas, limas are some of the least beany tasting of beans, with a flavor that fans describe as nutty and sweet. But overcook them, and they can turn bitter and sulfurous, not unlike other oft-maligned foods, such as Brussels sprouts and broccoli.
The first thing one should do when cooking lima beans is to soak the beans in cold water overnight. Therefore, option C is the correct answer. Why is it important to soak lima beans in cold water? Soaking lima beans in cold water is an important step to ensure that they cook evenly and in less time.
Sometimes soup just needs to simmer longer to reach the perfect consistency. Check to see if the vegetables are tender, and then taste the broth. If the soup tastes a bit watery, give it more time.
Cornstarch, or corn flour, can be used to thicken soup through its high starch content. Cornstarch is a great thickener for soup because only a little bit is needed to significantly thicken a soup, and it will not affect the flavor profile of the soup.
Lima beans can be bitter because they weren't soaked before cooking. Soaking removes phytate, and boiling for a long time destroys lectins. Here are some ways to remove bitterness from lima beans: Quick soak: Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil, and then turn off the heat.
A lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), also commonly known as butter bean, sieva bean, double bean or Madagascar bean, is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans.
Lima beans are super nutritious. They're a good source of plant-based protein, fiber, iron, folate, zinc, copper, potassium, thiamine, and more. Plus, studies show that eating beans may promote fat loss and that peeps who eat lots of beans tend to have less body fat than folks who don't.
Yes! "Eating beans, including canned beans, every day is one of the best things you can do to help increase nutrients [that you may fall short on] and substantially improve the quality of your diet," says Papanikolaou.
Absolutely, bean soup can be a fantastic addition to your daily diet, but like everything, it should be consumed in moderation and as part of a balanced diet. Rich in Fiber: Beans are a stellar source of dietary fiber, which aids in digestion and helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
Introduction: My name is Terrell Hackett, I am a gleaming, brainy, courageous, helpful, healthy, cooperative, graceful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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