Add a green salad and you have a perfect lunch for a windy, rainy December day. You can warm up a loaf of whole grain bread in the oven and dunk warm slices of it in the stew. When hot, add the chopped onion and about 1/2 cup each of diced carrots and celery. Vegetables: Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the Instant Pot and select the saut button. Stir in the broth, the bay leaf, salt, pepper and cook for 30 minutes. Add the butter beans, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Saute’ the diced onion in olive oil until soft and translucent. Reduce heat to medium, still a gentle boil. Add the crumbled bacon to the lima beans along with the remaining ingredients. Sort through the dried lima beans and place in a large bowl, cover with water by at least 3-4 inches and soak for 8-12 hours. Soak the dried beans overnight, cook them until half tender and drain. Bring to roaring bowl, lid slightly askew on top of pot and cook for about 30 minutes. Water should be about 4-5 inches above beans. The best way to eat legumes during the cold months is as a stew, simmered with a lot of different vegetables such as carrots and leeks, garlic and onions, and fresh herbs either from your garden or from the supermarket: thyme, sage, tarragon, and bay leaf. Put the beans in a large stock pot (5.5 quarts+). Cook on HIGH for 2 hours then turn to LOW for 4 more hours or until the beans are tender. I ordered them from Purcell Mountain Farms in the Kootenai River Valley of North Idaho. Add broth and any water needed to bring the waterline 2 inches above the beans. Ingredients: 1 (1-pound) package Camellia Brand Large Lima Beans 5 slices bacon, roughly chopped 1 large onion, chopped 1 ham hock or pound seasoning. A beautiful pattern of red and white (well, hers are red. It made me want to read the book which made me want to buy the beans. Lately, I have been interested in heirloom varieties of legumes and I discovered the Christmas lima beans on the cover of Barbara Kingsolver’s book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”. Maybe she clicked the heels of her red “espadrilles” or struck the “Creuset” stew pot with her wand in any case, coming back from school in the drizzling darkness and opening the front door while wiping our wet nose on our wet sleeve, we smelled the magic in the hallway leading to the kitchen where the table would already be set, and that daily, ritualistic miracle would unfold, not surprising any of us. All criteria which pleased my mother, always pressed for time in a household where laundry for nine people was done mostly by hand and ironing was for, among other things, bed linens, dish towels, underwear and handkerchiefs. When I grew up, legumes were inexpensive, they were filling, and they did not need much supervision to cook. By now, you know that it started with my mother, of course. I would never pass on cream of lima bean soup. I have been in love with dry beans forever.
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