Lima Bean

Head north of Sunset, and you will happen upon this live-music supper club tucked away in the hills of tony Bel Air. The swank venue features a stage surrounded by tables where you can spy toe-tapping regulars such as Nicolette Sheridan and Virginia Madsen taking in the soulful jazz tunes. You can make a meal of chef Sharon Funt's delicious flatbread appetizer; each serving provides more than 8 grams of fiber.

Your butcher can butterfly the lamb for you. What to drink: Bordeaux-blend reds, such as Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon, are the perfect match.

The cooking water for these beans becomes a flavorful broth to serve them in.

This Indian-inspired salad can also be served warm as a side dish.

It may be corn season, but canned or frozen corn kernels work just as well as fresh in this corn salad. A mixed green salad rounds out the menu nicely.

Slightly sweet, fresh ricotta, which can be found in many Italian markets, makes this starter especially delicious. Regular ricotta also works well.

Make this at least one day and up to two days ahead for best flavor. This is a much simplified version of the classic smoked meat and bean cassoulet.

Dry-cured country ham can be substituted for the hickory-smoked ham called for here.

Try this with ciabatta or whole wheat bread.

In place of the pasta commonly found in Italian bean soups we've used wheat berries — minimally processed whole grains — for the following recipe.

Succotash is a corn and bean dish introduced to the early settlers by Indians. The Yankees most likely used local cranberry beans, a kind of shell bean, but lima beans have become the preferred, readily available substitute. We've also added tomatoes for their bright color and fresh flavor, even though they probably did not enter the New England culinary mainstream until the nineteenth century.

For cool contrast to the spicy soup, serve an orange, red onion and avocado salad sprinkled with ground cumin, fresh lime juice and olive oil. Complete the main course with corn bread, and end with vanilla pudding topped with cocoa powder and chopped pecans.

This recipe originally accompanied Roast Turkey with Bourbon Glaze . Here are two southern favorites in one colorful stuffing. Prepare the corn bread one day ahead so that it can dry out overnight. (This lends a nice texture to the stuffing.)