Butter Beans and Mixed Greens

Name: Butter Beans and Mixed Greens
Yield: serves 8 to 10
Ingredients: 1 (1-pound) package dried butter beans or large lima beans; 8 strips thick-sliced applewood-smoked bacon, cut into bite-size pieces; 1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped; 2 stalks celery, chopped; 6 cloves garlic, minced; 8 cups chicken stock; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 2 shakes Tabasco sauce; 1 tablespoon cider vinegar; 1 large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped; 8 slices thick-sliced applewood-smoked bacon, cut into bite-size pieces; 1/2 large red onion, chopped; 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons minced garlic (about 5 cloves); 2 (12-ounce) packages cut and cleaned greens, such as mustard, collard, or baby spinach; 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; Jalapeño Cornbread with Cheese, Corn, and Arugula (page 241), for accompaniment

December 14, 2011

For Southerners like me, there’s not a better meal on the planet than cornbread, beans, and greens cooked with lots of bacon. I know a lot of good old ranch cooks who feel the same. There wasn’t much green to eat for cowboys on the range, but beans cooked with salt pork were common. So common, in fact, that cowboy nicknames for beans were many: Mexican strawberries, prairie strawberries, and whistle berries. But the funniest of all, recorded in Ramon F. Adams’s book Come an’ Get It, was “deceitful beans ’cause they talk behind yore back.”

Recipe notes

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