Spanish giant butter beans - Anderson & Hill (2024)

FAQs

Are butter beans and gigante beans the same? ›

Gigante beans are essentially large lima beans (also known as butter beans), but they are a little different from the varieties you'd find on the shelves in the US. And that's because they are grown in Greece, in the northwest of the country in regions like Prespes.

Called Judión for its large size, this bean is very tender and tasty and is a much loved pulse used in dishes in La Granja and throughout the rest of Spain. Our Giant Butter Beans are already cooked, so there's no need to soak them for 24 hours. Just open, rinse and add to your authentic Spanish dishes.

High levels of LDL cholesterol make it more likely you'll have heart problems or a stroke. But butter beans can help! One study found that when people ate 120g beans five times per week alongside their usual diet, they experienced a reduction in LDL cholesterol.

If you don't have a slow cooker, soak your dried beans in plenty of cold water for at least 8 hours or overnight. Rinse the soaked beans, tip them into a large, heavy pan, and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 10cm.

Gigantes are large white beans and can be substituted with large white lima beans if you can't find them. They literally translate to “giants”. This version of Gigantes Plaki is one that I've made many times. Generally they are baked but I really like quickly stewing them in an onion, tomato and dill sauce.

In the American South and the United Kingdom, they're butter beans. For the rest of the United States, they're typically called lima, after the bean's origin city of Lima, Peru, where they've grown for over 9,000 years.

Although beans contain carbohydrates, they are low on the glycemic index (GI) scale and do not cause significant spikes in a person's blood sugar levels. Beans are a complex carbohydrate. The body digests this form more slowly than other carbohydrates, helping to keep blood sugar levels stable for longer.

Butter Beans are a fantastically healthy ingredient – they're high in protein and fibre, and they're an excellent source of carbohydrates. Low in fat and calories but high in folate, starch and iron, they're one of the best store cupboard ingredients there is.

Beans tend to be healthier than pasta since they contain more nutrients than white pasta alone. Similar to chickpeas and lentils, beans are excellent sources of fiber and plant-based protein. Easily incorporated into various dishes, beans have several health benefits including promoting a healthy gut and heart.

If you don't have time to presoak, don't sweat it– your beans will still be tender and delicious. However, there is one exception: if you're starting with old beans that have suffered moisture loss (Primary Beans defines as beans older than 2 years from harvest), a presoak may help you achieve evenly cooked beans.

Do you need to rinse butter beans? ›

Many people wonder if they need to drain and rinse canned beans, and the answer is, “it depends.” It's fine to add the bean liquid to many recipes, but if you want to reduce the amount of sodium, it's best to drain and rinse canned beans.

Dried beans typically have a moisture content of around 16%. However, as they age, moisture evaporates, giving pectin time to age and harden the skin. These beans can often take much longer to soften while soaking and cooking, up to twice the time!

The Italians call them corona beans; the Greeks call them gigante beans. You'll also sometimes find them labeled as butter beans. They all, in fact, stem from the good ol' lima bean.

A lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), also commonly known as butter bean, sieva bean, double bean or Madagascar bean, is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans.

Some alternatives to butter beans in recipes include cannellini beans, great northern beans, navy beans, or even chickpeas. These beans have a similar texture and can be used interchangeably in many dishes.

Butter beans, also called lima beans, are part of the white bean family, alongside cannellini beans, great northern beans, and navy beans. They all have similar properties and can be used interchangeably in recipes.