Paprika-rich Spanish chorizo teams up with globe-trotting beans in this Warm Butter Bean Salad with Chorizo and Tomatoes. Recipe below.
Anything that prompts me to call my Aunt Veta down in southern Mississippi is a good thing. She is my favorite and most colorful of all my aunts—and I have been blessed in that department. She and my Uncle James raised a family and then proceeded to raise two grandkids until Uncle James passed away several years ago. Then Aunt Veta finished the job on her own. She is stubbornly positive and optimistic, even when the going gets rough—and if she can’t find something good to say about you, you are a sorry individual indeed.
What prompted my call the other day was this dish. Specifically, the butter bean part of it. Based on a dish served as a starter at London Moorish/Spanish restaurant Moro [covered in the May issue of Food & Wine], it also features Spanish chorizo—but more about that later.
Butter beans? Lima beans? The one thing everyone agrees on concerning these beans is that they originated in South America. Explorers and slavers of the early 1500’s carried them to the farthest parts of the earth—Europe, Africa, the East Indies, India, the Philippines. Depending on who’s telling the story, they’ve been cultivated since either 4,000 B.C. or 6,000 B.C. There are two distinct varieties: The baby lima—an actual variety, not just a lima bean harvested early—and the larger, plumper Fordhook. According to most sources, the names lima and butter are interchangeable, with butter beans simply being the popular name for them in the southern United States. But other sources say that southerners insist that the lima bean and the butter bean are two different beans altogether.
It was time to call Aunt Veta. “They’re as different as black-eyed peas and English peas,” she proclaimed. “James and me, we never much cared for lima beans. So James would always plant speckled butter beans.” [When mottled with purple they’re called calico or speckled butter beans—great, more names.] But Uncle James would harvest the beans early, when the pods were light green, so the beans would be white. Still, when Aunt Veta cooked them, they would turn the cooking liquid to what she called a “blue liquor.”
Whatever the name/size/color, these full-flavored, slightly kidney-shaped beans contain high quality protein, phosphorus, potassium and iron. They’re also rich in the best sort of fiber, soluble fiber, which helps to eliminate cholesterol from the body.
Spanish Chorizo. Last week I wrote about Spain’s love of all things pork and mentioned this dense, paprika-powered sausage. 
Chorizo is made from coarsely chopped fatty pork and seasoned with mild Spanish paprika, salt and garlic. That’s pretty much it. Spicier versions will also include small dried hot chiles. In Portugal, they make a similar sausage called chouriço. Both are completely different from the ground pork Mexican chorizo.
As an indication of how much paprika is used in making chorizo, when you sauté the fully cooked sausage, the rendered fat is deep red-orange and will color anything else you cook with it. I like cooking up some chorizo and maybe an onion and some red bell pepper, then scrambling some eggs with it—they take on a nice, orangish tinge. They are also quite delicious.
So is this dish. I adapted the recipe to use as a side instead of a starter. Either way you use it, it’s as impressive as it is easy to make.
Warm Butter Bean Salad with Chorizo and Tomatoes
Serves 4
1 15-ounce can butter beans, with its liquid [see Kitchen notes]
1/4 pound Spanish chorizo, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1 cup [or more] grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thin
1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves [no stems, larger leaves torn in half]
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar [see Kitchen notes]
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Heat butter beans in a small sauce pan in their liquid. Whisk oil and vinegar together and toss with tomatoes, onion and parsley in medium serving bowl.
Sauté chorizo in a heavy skillet with just a little oil over medium high flame until browned and much of the fat has been rendered—no more than 2 or 3 minutes is needed. While chorizo is cooking, drain butter beans and add to tomato mixture. Using a slotted spoon, transfer chorizo to serving bowl with beans and tomato mixture. Toss gently, adjust seasoning and serve warm.
Kitchen Notes
When I made this dish, I used a cup of halved tomatoes because that’s what I had on hand. Next time, I would use more, perhaps even doubling it, as the original recipe did. I used half the chorizo the recipe called for, which made it a great side dish. If I were serving it as a starter, I would use a full 8 ounces, as called for.
Butter Beans. Moro uses fresh beans, which greatly adds to the cooking time. Also, good luck finding fresh anywhere outside the south. I used canned [avoid the canned ones seasoned with bacon and molasses]. I also saw frozen, which would probably taste fresher, but take longer to cook—and I was impatient. Despite what Aunt Veta might say, you can substitute lima beans if necessary, but try to avoid the baby limas—they’re too small to hold their own visually in this dish.
Sherry Vinegar. Another Spanish product, this adds a nice flavor. You could also substitute red wine vinegar.
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Yum. Never tried butter beans. I’m intrigued. But I’m even more intrigued by your Aunt Veta. I would love to meet her one day. If there were only a recipe for that spirit!
Yes, Veta sounds fascinating!
I don’t think I can find chorizo locally – it’s frustrating and part of a larger frustration with the deficiencies of local supermarkets.
But I would love this, I think!
Thanks for the primer on beans — not having grown up in the South (or being as lucky as you to have a wonderful Southern aunt), I admit that beans are still a bit of a mystery. I learn about them one dish at a time. I don’t eat chorizo, but there is now a chicken chourico on the market here in Rhode Island that makes a fair substitute in dishes like this. Great post!
Ronnie—Ahhh, the Aunt Veta stories I could tell! Every time I talk to her, I’m sorry I don’t call more often.
Mimi—Regarding those deficiencies, I think it’s time to explore a little Internet shopping. Yeah, yeah, I know—the current mantra is “eat local, eat local, eat local.” But local doesn’t always get the job done, does it? And as these well-traveled beans prove, we’ve been global grazers for centuries. But in the meantime, any small, hard sausages would create a similarly interesting dish. You might add a little sweet paprika to the dish to get closer to the flavor.
Lydia—Thanks! Good to know about the chicken chourico. I often find myself substituting turkey smoked sausage in recipes calling for kielbasa, just to cut back on the fat intake.
I love butter beans, especially mashed into brown rice and doused with tabasco sauce and minced fresh onion. I also love lima beans. Once I was delighted to find them fresh at the grocer’s. I took them home, cut them from their plastic pouch and placed them into a pot of gently boiling water. I cooked those babies all day long and they never did get soft. Finally, in frustration, with tears and bad thoughts directed at the grocer, I pitched them. Who knew you had to peel their tough outer hulls first? (signed) The Amateur
Your aunt Veta is lovely, I’m sure Terry – I just hope the other aunts don’t get jealous of her… 😉
In the last Donna Hay Magazine I received there is a special article featuring chorizo, too – I found the recipes mouthwatering and I don’t even eat pork. Yep, the recipes are that good.
We have chouriço here in Brazil, too – but it’s kind of gross since the recipe calls for blood. I have never tasted, but many people here love it. Go figure. 🙂
Your dish looks delicious – so colorful and refreshing!
I’m certainly no bean expert – I always disliked limas for how dry and mealy they are, but I haven’t tried butter beans…
The chorizo is great looking. I eat a lot of the spicy loose sausage (raw) Mexican chorizo, but love Spanish chorizo too.
Delicious!
Like Kirsten, I was never a lima bean fan. Don’t like the texture. But there’s a European market nearby, and she makes a bean dish with tomatoes that just sends me over the edge! This dish looks so good that I’m definitely trying it. Love the fact that the beans lower your cholesterol while the sausage raises it – such balance! 😉
I love your aunt Veta. She sounds like my kind of woman – stubbornly optimistic? Yesss!!
Carolyn—Some day I think I need to do a post about cooking disasters. Not that other bloggers haven’t already done this, but I think it would make for some funny confessional stories, especially in the comments.
Patricia—I know what you mean. There’s a deli product sold in the U.S. called blood sausage. Now, there’s a product in serious need of a rebranding campaign.
Kirsten and Toni—This is precisely why I think Aunt Veta is right about them being different beans altogether. Look for butter beans and see if that changes your mind. That said, this dish would probably also be great with cannellini—would look pretty too, with the plump white beans, red tomatoes and green parsley.
Oh wow, does this ever look fabulous. I’m making it tonight. Thanks a million.
I love beans, especially butter beans. Thanks for an excellent post!
I always thought butter and lima beans were different. I love the thick , creamy consistency of butter beans much better than limas. When I lived in NC though, limas ruled. BTW, when can I meet Aunt Veta? She sounds delightful!
Ha, I just got some well-traveled beans too, all the way from California, and they’re called Christmas Limas. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but this sure does stand as a contender. Thanks!
This is like an Ainsley Harriot recipe I make once in while. Except his doesn’t have the delicious chorizo and he uses mint instead of parsley. Oh, and black olives!
I love the photos on your blog, by the way – simple and unpretentious, but beautiful.
this dish is so pretty it has to taste good!
Terry — Thanks for the link to this post, it sounds awesome.
I need to make a trek to The Spanish Table and pick up some chorizo…