Christmas lima beans marinated in olive oil, herbs, truffle salt and garlic

I love a recipe that is simple, but takes a few days to complete. There’s something so gratifying in checking in on the process every couple hours. Gourmet beans in oil with truffle salt have become my new favorite thing to eat after making them for the italian dinner party a few weeks ago. According to the internet, this is “Greek-style.”  I hadn’t tried it with dried beans until today.

A couple weeks ago, I picked up a pound bag of dried christmas beans at farmer’s market for $1. Christmas lima beans are a type of lima bean, also known as “chestnut beans” or “pope’s beans.” If you don’t have them in your local market, you can order them online from Rancho Gordo. They’re gorgeous. 

Step 1 is soaking the christmas beans in a covered pan overnight. Add enough water to cover the beans two inches deep. The beans will almost triple in size and turn a shocking mauve color through the soaking. This gives you a sense of the size.

Rinse off the soaked beans and top them with a fresh pot of water, again two inches above the beans. Put a quartered onion, a couple cloves of garlic, a carrot, a bay leaf, a couple sprigs of oregano and a handful of kale stems. I discovered using kale stems as a trick for adding a hearty pepper flavor to soup stock a year ago. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover and reduce to simmer for an hour and a half.

When the beans are cooked (they should still be firm with a distinctive chestnut-y texture) drain them and pull out the veggies. Rinse the beans and put them back in the pan. Top with a generous amount of olive oil, fresh garlic, chopped fresh basil and oregano, truffle salt, lemon zest and a dash of white wine vinegar. Yum. The dark color and rich garlic smell at this stage reminds me of escargot.

Pour the beans into glass jars. If needed add more olive oil with a dash of vinegar to make sure they’re fully submerged.

Serve the garlic beans on their own as an antipasto with a side of crusty bread for the extra olive oil dressing.  Or, use them in a salad, the way you would use marinated artichokes.