A Recipe for Southern Butter Beans (They're tasty. Give them a chance!)

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A Recipe for Southern Butter Beans :: You know them. You might think you hate them, but if you trust-fall with me here into this recipe for just a minute, I promise you’ll be left with a greater appreciation for the humble butter bean (which is also a Lima bean). These things get a whole lot of hate, but their creamy texture and mild, blank slate flavor profile makes for a wonderful side dish with so many things. We will add bacon. We will add brown sugar. We will add a whole bunch of garlic. Give this Southern recipe a try, see if it changes your mind. It’s one of my favorite things. No kidding!

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Okay then, so what are butter beans?

Butter beans are Lima beans and Lima beans are butter beans. I don’t know if people know this? I bet lots of southerners do, that’s for sure. Butter beans appear on many tables across the Southland, and I have loved them my whole life. But as soon as you swap in the word quote Lima” for “butter,” people lose their minds. Bless their hearts, these little beanie babies are truly a loathed food.

But with this recipe, I’m here to prove that they are a wonderful legume and well deserving of a place on all of our dinner tables. This recipe is rich and smoky, a little bit sweet and very garlicky. You can literally serve it as a side dish with just about anything, which is also lovable, I think.

Southern Style Butter Beans FAQs

What is the difference between lima beans and butter beans?

There is no difference between Lima beans and butter beans – they’re the same thing. Their geography is what typically determines what they’re called, as people in the American South and the UK tend to call them “butter beans,” while to the rest of the United States – they’re Lima Beans.

Can I substitute anything for butter beans?

Well, Lima beans of course (see above). While these two items are the same thing, you will often see both options in the store. Lima beans are typically available frozen and canned, whereas Butter beans are usually canned. For this recipe, you could substitute grean beans (either fresh or canned), or any manner of dark leafy greens.

Are butter beans good for you?

Butter beans are very rich in vitamins and minerals and can therefore directly contribute to our overall health. These beans are great sources of potassium, magnesium, folate, iron, zinc, calcium, and protein. Now, we’re adding bacon, sugar, and butter to ours, so that may change the health report a little bit, but on their own – butter beans are very good for you.

Are butter beans Southern?

Yes, absolutely. The term “butter beans” is exclusively Southern (and also British), as the rest of the US refers to the little legumes as Lima Beans. Southern lunch and dinner tables have played host to delicious pots of creamy butter beans for decades.

What to serve with this recipe for Southern butter beans

This recipe for Southern butter beans is very flexible. She just plays so very well with others. I think this pot o’ beans would be great served alongside my cook off winning chili (since there are no beans in the chili itself). They would be the greatest cozy bed for a spicy sunny side up chili crisp fried egg or two. They’d be a stand-up side dish to a simple protein main, such as my (favorite) brown sugar chili baked chicken wings or even a classic steak au poivre.

What you’ll need for this recipe for Southern butter beans

Since butter beans are lime beans, please feel free to swap in limas if that’s easy for you to find in your neck of the woods. Also, this recipe works great with the smaller beans or the big fat ones (I love these things). You can even do this with green beans if you so choose, either canned or fresh. It’s a flexible flavor base we’re working with here, so riff as you see fit.

Southern style butter beans INGREDIENTS

8 slices bacon, chopped
½ large yellow onion or 1 small yellow onion, diced
Salt and pepper
28 to 32 ounces canned or frozen butter beans or lima beans (drained and rinsed if canned)
2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar (light or dark)
2 teaspoons chicken stock concentrate (or whatever flavor you love)
3 garlic cloves, minced or grated
1.5 to 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons butter

Let’s take a closer look at these Southern Style Butter Beans ingredients …

Bacon: The backbone of this recipe, the provider of necessary fat and smoke, the bacon is a real champ here. I suggest 8 slices, but you could use 7 or 9. The amount doesn’t really matter so much. The idea is to get it nice and crispy, and then use its rendered drippings to cook everything else. That crispy bacon will go on top of the finished beans when they’re all said and done, creating a truly delicious butter bean experience for one and all.

Onion: We’re using 2 classic aromatics to help build flavor in this delicious pot of butter beans and first up is the onion. You can use any kind you like really. But I’d stay away from these super punchy red onion here. Just a medium sized yellow onion should do the trick. If your onion is massive, half will probably be enough.

The Beans (main event): You can use either butter beans or Lima beans for this recipe, because they are the same thing. Lima beans have been around for more than 9000 years and hail from Lima, Peru. Hence the name right? Butter beans often come canned, so if that’s what you choose be sure to drain them and rinse them and you’ll be good to go. Sometimes you can find the really big, fat ones which would work wonderfully here as well. You just might want to buy an extra can or two, because they won’t fill the pot up as much. Lima beans are usually available frozen, which keeps things super quick and easy.

Brown Sugar: You could use maple syrup or honey here if you like, or even granulated sugar. The point is to add another layer of flavor to a relatively simple dish. Lima beans and butter beans aren’t exactly champions in the flavor arena. So, we do what we can to elevate them and show off how good they actually are. Their creamy texture is best complemented by the smoke of the bacon, and a little sweetness from the brown sugar. Plus lots of garlic and salt, of course. That extra hit of molasses in the brown sugar makes it even better.

Stock Concentrate: I sneak this into so many of my recipes that I should honestly look into some sort of sponsorship deal. It lasts a long time in your fridge, and these stock concentrates really do help build so much tremendous flavor in so many of our dishes. They give that low and slow cooked flavor to things that barely even hung out on the stove top at all. You can usually use the different flavors interchangeably, and I always have a veggie stock and chicken stock option in my fridge.

Garlic: Nothing to say here except – the more the merrier, as per usual. Maybe especially so with this recipe for southern butter beans.

Stock: Traditionally recipes like this will ask you to use water to build that brothy base for your butter beans. But because we’re going with a “more is more” approach, I think stock is wonderful here. Remember, we are dealing with one of the most hated legumes, nay – foods – around. People don’t go wild for Lima beans okay? So we’re going to use a small ingredient list, but we’ll make the most of each thing. So let’s not use water. Let’s reach for the stock here.

Butter: It adds a luscious creaminess to the finished product. And? We are making butter beans after all. And again? This is Southern cuisine, so we’re going with the mindset that a little bit of butter makes everything better. Because it does.

How to make this recipe for Southern butter beans

This is a pretty classic preparation of Southern style butter beans. We will build flavor with smoky bacon and use the drippings to cook everything else. A little bit of brown sugar, a little bit of onion and garlic, some stock concentrate and stock itself will help create a creamy and super flavorful pot of butter beans.

Southern style butter beans DIRECTIONS

Cook the bacon in a large pot set over medium heat until browned and crispy. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate for now, leaving two tablespoons of the drippings behind.
Add the onion and season with a little salt and pepper (still working over medium heat). Cook for 5 minutes, just until tender. Add the butter beans, brown sugar, stock concentrate, and garlic, and cook, for a few minutes.
Add the 1.5 cups of the stock and butter and reduce the heat to low (you want everything to be submerged in the flavorful stock). Let everything simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes so the stock can reduce and get creamier. This is ready to eat anytime, so you be the judge of when things look perfect to you – maybe you want to keep simmering to further reduce the mixture, or maybe you want to just simmer for 15 minutes, so they’re still a little soup-esque. There’s no wrong way to butter bean here. Top with the reserved crispy bacon.
Serve warm with cornbread or biscuits, if you like.

If you enjoyed this recipe for Southern butter beans, you might also want to check out:

Sweet Cream Cornmeal Pound Cake

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Pumpkin Pimento Cheese Ball

Crunchy Monterey Ranch Un-fried Chicken

Marinated Butter Beans with Halloumi

Amazing Green Bean Bundles

A Recipe for Southern Butter Beans (They’re tasty. Give them a chance!)

Okay then, so what are butter beans?

Southern Style Butter Beans FAQs

What is the difference between lima beans and butter beans?