Toasted Lima Beans — Roasty, Limey, Satisfying Veg

[00:02] 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

[00:14] 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

[00:27] 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

[00:39] 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

[00:53] 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

[01:05] 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,

[01:19] 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

[01:32] 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

[01:45] 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

[01:58] 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

[02:10] 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

[02:24] 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

[02:38] 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

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[03:57] 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

[04:11] 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

[04:24] 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

[04:36] 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

[04:52] 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

[05:05] 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

[05:18] 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.

[05:32] 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

[05:46] 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

[05:59] 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

[06:13] 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

[06:26] bringing sexy beans. You are old if you know what this joke means.