--- title: 'Toasted Lima Beans — Roasty, Limey, Satisfying Veg' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=2VwHnlrL2so' video_id: '2VwHnlrL2so' date: 2026-07-22 duration_sec: 389 channel: 'Adam Ragusea' --- # Toasted Lima Beans — Roasty, Limey, Satisfying Veg > Source: [Toasted Lima Beans — Roasty, Limey, Satisfying Veg](https://youtube.com/watch?v=2VwHnlrL2so) ## Summary This video presents a detailed recipe for a roasted lima bean dish inspired by the Mayan Cafe in Louisville. The dish features fresh frozen lima beans, toasted pumpkin seeds, parsley, green onions, and lime juice, cooked as a stir-fry for a healthy and satisfying main course. ### Key Points - **Inspiration from Mayan Cafe** [00:02] — The recipe is inspired by a dish from Mayan Cafe in Louisville, which was featured in an NPR article. Chef Bruce based it on his mother's cooking from a Yucatan village. - **Ingredients: Lima Beans** [00:39] — Use fresh frozen green lima beans (not dried). Thaw and boil for about 5 minutes to avoid grittiness. - **Secret Ingredient: Pumpkin Seeds** [01:05] — Toast pumpkin seeds (pepitas) in a dry pan until dark and popping. Grind to a breadcrumb-like texture for added texture and roasted flavor. - **Drying Beans is Crucial** [02:10] — After boiling, drain and dry the beans thoroughly on a towel. Wet beans will explode in hot oil and won't brown properly. - **Pan Selection and Seasoning** [02:50] — A carbon steel pan (like from Made In) is recommended for high heat and even cooking. A restaurant trick: heat oil until it smokes to create a seasoning layer. - **Prep and Stir-Fry Technique** [04:11] — Prep all ingredients beforehand. Use a mix of sesame oil and avocado oil. Add dried beans in a single layer, let them brown without stirring for a minute to get char. - **Finishing Touches** [05:32] — Add parsley and green onions briefly, then pumpkin seeds, lime juice, salt, and a drizzle of olive oil for a salad-dressing-like texture. ### Conclusion This lima bean dish is a roasty, toasty, and satisfying main course that is healthy and sustainable. The recipe is a home cook's adaptation of the Mayan Cafe's original, emphasizing proper browning and texture. ## Transcript concert, and we ate at a place called Mayan Cafe. It's still in business today, and you should go there. I remember thinking, "This lima bean dish is one of the best vegetable dishes I've ever had. It could be a main dish." And then later, those lima beans actually became kind of famous. There was an NPR article about them. This is a video on Mayan Cafe's website. That's Chef Bruce. He based this dish on something his mother used to cook in their little Yucatan village in Mexico. I've messed with it myself a lot over the years. And here's how I'm making it these days. You want the big variety of lima beans, and you want the green ones. They have not been dried. They were picked fresh and flash frozen like a vegetable. Chef Bruce's published recipe calls for half a pound. The frozen packages generally come in 3/4 lb, and I've found that's just fine. You need to thaw them obviously and in my experience you actually need to cook them a little boil them about 5 minutes otherwise they tend to be gritty in the final dish though I'm sure that depends on the kind that you get. Meanwhile I'll get a big pan heating dry and it's time for the secret ingredient pumpkin seeds. I'm sure any form of pumpkin seeds would be fine. I'm using papitas that have had their white outer shell removed but again I'm sure anything is fine. And about half a cup, 30 grams, is the most that you could need. I think their published recipe calls for way more pumpkin seeds than they actually use at the restaurant. Me complaining about a typo in a recipe. Pot meat kettle. At Mayan Cafe, they roast them in the oven, which makes sense in a restaurant where the oven is more efficient to just toast them up here in a dry pan. It's fun. You'll see them start popping like little jumping beans. Keep them moving so nothing burns. Roast them as dark as you want. I like them pretty dark. You will definitely smell it working. All done. Set those aside. And it's time to drain the beans, which have boiled for a few minutes. Drain thoroughly. And then you have to dry them. I lay out a towel, pour the drained beans on top, spread them into a single layer, and then let evaporation do the rest. They're real hot. If the beans are wet, they'll explode on you when they hit the hot oil later, and or they will not brown properly. Now I can grind my toasted pumpkin seeds to a breadcrumblike texture. I'm sure you could do this in a like that is the traditional way, but Chef Bruce uses his quezin art and so shall I. This crumb brings so much texture and roasted flavor to the beans. It reminds me of toasted breadcrumbs on a pasta dish, but much more nutritious. Okay, real quick. I'm going to wipe out my pan, and while it's still on super high heat, I'm going to put in a drop of oil. Spread it so thin that it almost disappears and then just let it burn off to give me a fresh seasoning layer. Just takes a couple of minutes. This is a restaurant trick that you can do if you have good ventilation and if you have a good carbon steel pan like this one from Made In, sponsor of this video. Madeen designs prograde cookware that we can use at home. They work with multigenerational factories and artisans to combine rugged old school construction with cuttingedge product design. This carbon steel line is made in Sweden. I love the tall angled rim. I am not good at tossing food in a pan like this. And even I can do it with the made in pan. No spills. You don't have to have a carbon steel for this dish, but it's a great choice because you can get it extremely hot. You can put a stick resistant seasoning coat on it just like with cast iron, but it gives you the lighter weight and the rapid even heating of stainless steel. The and you can use them straight out of the box. The handles are comfy and they are built like tanks. You can abuse them and they will hold up. Check out the carbon steel collection and my other favorite cookware from Made In. Use my link in the description to save on your order. Thank you, Made In. When the smoking has you've converted that thin layer of oil into a plastic-like polymer that we call a seasoning coat. Again, not necessary for this, but good. While all that was happening, I cut up my other veg. about half of this bunch of fresh parsley. I'm sure cilantro would be awesome, too, but Chef Bruce uses parsley. Get that reasonably fine. Remove the roots from this bunch of green onions and slice thin. Keep going until you get to the part that's a little dry and gross. And then I'll open up this lime. This dish is a stir fry by any name. It goes very fast, so you have to have everything prepped before you start. That's it. After seasoning, I cooled off the pan a little so that this next oil doesn't immediately burst into flames. Chef Bruce calls for a mixture of sesame oil and canola oil. I'm using avocado oil instead, but lots of things could work. And in goes some sesame oil, too, which has a very strong, roasty, nutty flavor. starting to smoke right before you drop in the dried off lima beans. Bundling them up in a towel works great. I'll toss them to get them in a thin, even layer. You can see why I like a wide pan for this. And then I like to leave them there for a minute. I just let them get really brown, even slightly charred on the bottom side before I do any additional stirring. Water is going to lower the temperature and impede browning. So, now is my best chance to get a lot of color. It's just like browning off a bunch of little meat total. When I'm happy with the color I've got, I'll just throw in the parsley and green onions to just barely soften a all, and I want to preserve those fresh green flavors. Then the pumpkin seeds. Again, this is the most I would use. You could use less. Then the lime juice. I whole lime, but you could serve additional wedges at the table for people like me who want it really acidic. Salt to taste. Couple big pinches for me. And at the restaurant, they finish it with some nice olive oil. A really cool Mexican Mediterranean fusion thing. You're looking for a salad dressing type texture that brings the whole dish together. This is a hot bean salad and it's so roasty and toasty and the texture is so meaty and substantial and satisfying that I think it works as a main dish. A healthy, sustainable weekn night dinner for two with a fair bit of protein and fiber. Again, this is just my version. If you're ever in Louisville, which is an underrated city, you got to go to Mayan Cafe for the real thing. Killer place, nice people. I'm thing. Killer place, nice people. I'm bringing sexy beans. You are old if you bringing sexy beans. You are old if you know what this joke means.