Reach For This Type Of Bean If You're Looking To Get More Fiber In Your Diet

When people think of giving their diets a fiber-fueled boost with beans, they might imagine a bowl of chili or a lentil stew, and although it's true that all beans are fantastic for digestive health, there is one member of the legume family that is often overlooked. Lima beans (also referred to as butter beans) contain around 9 grams of fiber per cup of cooked beans — that's about 2 grams more per cup than black beans, lentils, and chickpeas. The large white beans are especially popular in Southern dishes, such as succotash, a corn and lima bean medley. (And yes, in case you were wondering, lima beans are indeed named after the capital city of Peru, because it's these nutritional powerhouses' country of origin.)

The high fiber content in lima beans not only keeps things moving in the digestive system, it can also potentially strengthen immunity and reduce the risk of several diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and breast and colon cancer. Lima beans also pack 12 grams of protein per cooked cup, and are a particularly good source of iron. A single cup contains about a quarter of your daily iron requirements. So how to get the most out of these nutritional benefits? There are several ways to prepare and enjoy lima beans, and once you start experimenting with them, the possibilities continue to expand.

Lima beans have a creamy texture and can be made even creamier with a few hacks in the kitchen. They also absorb the flavor of whatever you cook them with, making them ideal for recipes that incorporate a lot of herbs and spices, like Italian style butter beans, soups and stews. One of the most popular ways to prepare lima beans is in salads, particularly Peruvian lima bean salad, a traditional salad made with lima beans, lime juice, tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, and cilantro. 

It's possible to buy lima beans fresh, canned, frozen, or dried. Fresh lima beans are green, and though they do not need to be cooked for nearly as long as dried ones, they do need to be cooked for about 30 minutes, and can then be eaten with a little butter or oil and salt, similar to edamame. It's important to always make sure to cook fresh lima beans until they are tender, because if eaten raw, they can be poisonous due to the presence of cyanide. 

Frozen lima beans are usually precooked, and dried ones will need to be soaked or quick soaked before cooking. Canned lima beans tend to get a bad rap, but that's actually an unfair belief that should be shelved along with our outdated prejudices against Brussels sprouts. The truth is that canned lima beans are actually ideal for throwing into stews or blending up into lima bean dips.