Fresh shelling beans take best to a slow-braise, without any advanced planning.
As a pantry staple, you can’t beat dried beans. They’re cheap, store well for a long time, and are filling and hearty. But the thing is, I just don’t have the patience for them. I often get the hankering for beans as soon as I’m hungry, and well, there’s no time for that critical step of soaking them overnight.
That’s why I often used canned beans for my weeknight cooking. But when fresh beans are in season in late summer and early autumn, I relish the time-intensive task of plucking them from the shells then baking them in a slow oven until tender. Raw Christmas lima beans have a tie-dye-like purple coloring that’s beautiful but ultimately fades when cooked. Prop styling by Nidia Cueva. Because I can be bothered to tediously open bean pods but can’t entertain tending a pot on the stove for hours, my preferred bean-cooking method is to chuck them in a baking dish with water and aromatics and let the oven do its thing. The usual suspects are present: onion, carrot and celery, along with whatever fresh, hardy herbs I have hanging out in the fridge. But then I toss in a few strips of prosciutto to add their characteristic smoky, salty umami flavor. A dried chile de árbol spikes the low drum of the other aromatics.A couple hours in the oven — half the time covered in foil, the other half open to the reducing, crisping powers of the oven heat — renders the beans on the bottom tender and those on top crunchy. The cooking liquid is concentrated and flavorful, the perfect elixir to soak up with bread. It’s a simple pot of beans, minus the pot, but that allows you all the smug satisfaction of being the type of person who plans ahead for a great meal. Cooked fresh lima beans, swimming in flavorful prosciutto-and-herb broth, perfect for sopping up with toasted bread. Prop styling by Nidia Cueva.Advertisement The aromatics used here should be what you have around and their presence a casual one. If you have leftover chopped onions or carrots, use those in place of the whole pieces. If you have a fresh chile and no dried ones, use that. Similarly, I often buy the “poultry” packets of fresh herbs, which contain both rosemary and sage, and thyme, so that I can use them all without having to buy large amounts of either.1 tablespoon kosher salt
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