Lima Bean Dip is made with flavorful baby green lima beans (butter beans) and sprinkled with crispy bacon. Serve with pita or corn chips for game day or as an easy party spread. Healthy recipe that uses a favorite leftover Southern side dish.
Although I'm just now publishing this easy spread recipe on my blog, I introduced it at my second Holiday Cooking Show a few years ago. It was born out of making good use of my holiday side dish leftovers for a New Years Eve party.
After a meal, during the Christmas holidays, I discovered I completely forgot to serve an entire pot of baby lima beans! After the meal, there it sat with the lid on, hiding them on the stove.
Instead of serving them as leftovers at our next meal with my Instant Pot Pepper Jelly Ham, Candied Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and Strawberry Pretzel Salad, the idea of pureeing them and turning them into a party dip came to me!
Why not? Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are pureed with garlic, lemon, and tahini (sesame paste) and olive oil to make a popular legume paste we call hummus. So, blending up these bacon-infused buttery beans sounded similar to me!
And, it was that easy! I simply drained the liquid from my flavorful Southern side dish, cooked lima beans, whipped them up in the food processor a minute and scooped it up with pita chips and corn chips. It was amazing!
I hope you enjoy this tasty, Southern party dip as much as we have. Did I mention it's pretty healthy at only has 25 calories per tablespoon? Bonus!
Shortcuts
- The biggest shortcut is using 2 cups of leftover, cooked lima beans or butter beans to make this recipe.
- Some frozen lima beans are sold "seasoned" with onion and red or green bell pepper, adding another layer of flavor to the dip without adding another ingredient.
- No need to thaw frozen lima beans before cooking.
- Using seasoned, canned lima beans requires no cooking. Just drain and puree. Margaret Holmes makes a 27-ounce can seasoned lima beans with Vidalia onions. Yum!
- Use cooked REAL bacon pieces instead of frying bacon. These bags are found near the salad dressings. I do NOT recommend Bacon Bits that are not really bacon, at all.
Ingredients
Scroll down to printable recipe for ingredient quantities.
- Frozen or fresh lima beans (see shortcuts and substitutions for canned and dried beans) I like to buy "seasoned" lima beans that come with onion and red bell pepper for added flavor without adding to the ingredient list)
- Chicken broth or water
- Garlic cloves or garlic powder
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
- Uncooked bacon
- Olive oil or reserved bacon drippings from cooking the bacon.
How to make Lima Bean Dip
If you have leftover cooked lima or butter beans, feel free to skip the cooking directions and go straight into the pureeing instructions.
- Combine lima beans, chicken broth (or water), garlic, salt, and pepper in a large saucepan or small Dutch oven.
- Stack the bacon and slice into 1/4-inch wide pieces. Add about one-third of the pieces to the lima bean mixture.
- Cover; bring up to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer the lima beans 20 to 25 minutes or until very soft.
- Meanwhile, cook the remaining sliced pieces of bacon in a small skillet over medium to medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp and browned; drain on a paper towel. Reserve the bacon drippings.
- Drain the lima beans, keeping the bacon and garlic with them. Pour into a food processor or a large blender.
Pro Tip: If using a blender instead of a food processor, be sure to let the beans cool slightly and remove the center of the top to the blender slightly. This will prevent pressure from building up from hot steam.
- Process the lima bean mixture until smooth. Add enough olive oil to the reserved bacon drippings to make 2 tablespoons. (Or, just use 2 tablespoons olive oil.) Slowly pour the bacon drippings or oil through the food chute, while the processor is running.
- Spoon into a serving bowl and sprinkle with cooked, crisp bacon. Best when served warm.
Serving this Southern-style dip with corn chip scoopers will remind you of eating lima beans and cornbread.... so good!
Lima Beans vs Butter Beans
They are technically two names for the same bean. They are the same broad bean but lima beans are in the lime-green-colored immature stage of the butter bean, often called baby limas. Baby lima beans are described as starchy like a fava bean. Mature white butter beans are sometimes described as buttery, creamy or even "mealy".
Substitutions & Variations
- Other beans- Trade out lima beans for any cooked broad beans like fava beans or Fordhook butter beans. Other buttery, creamy textured beans like navy beans, Great Northern, black-eyed peas, cannellini beans, or even red kidney beans will also work.
- Vegetarian or Vegan - Omit bacon while cooking the beans, use olive oil where bacon drippings is called for, and don't sprinkle bacon on top before serving.
- Add a little kick- Add 1/2 teaspoon Cajun or Creole seasoning for a little added heat and flavor. For extra heat without Cajun flavor, add 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper before blending.
- Dried lima beans- To use dried lima beans you may have on hand, soak and cook them according to package directions to yield 2 cups cooked beans.
- Oils- Other oils to use besides olive oil and bacon drippings: avocado oil, safflower oil, light sesame oil, peanut oil, extra virgin olive oil, vegetable oil, flavored olive oils.
- If you are slow cooking lima beans, a ham hock can be used to flavor the beans in place of the slice of bacon.
- Serve Lima Bean Dip as a side dish similar to cauliflower mash or mashed potatoes.
I don't recommend melted butter in place of olive oil unless you serve immediately because it solidifies when cooled. (Technically bacon drippings do, too, but it seems to take longer for bacon drippings to firm up.)
Helpful Recipe Information
Yes. Just skip the cooking step if they are seasoned, canned lima or butter beans. If not, stir in 1/4 teaspoon onion powder and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder to two (15-ounce) cans, about 2 cups total, or 1 (27-ounce) can of lima beans. Stirring in 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil or hot bacon drippings will enhance the flavor and texture of the dip.
I'm a big fan of using the microwave to reheat soft foods like lima bean dip. Place bean dip in a microwave-safe container and loosely cover it with a paper towel. Microwave on HIGH in 30 second increments until very warm, stirring to remove any hot spots in the middle.
Lima Bean Dip can be as simple as pureed, cooked and seasoned lima or butter beans. For Lima Bean Hummus, the traditional chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are traded out with lima beans and tahini sesame paste and lemon juice is added.
Simply stir in 2 to 3 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste) and 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and you have Lima Bean Hummus! Gild the lily by drizzling some extra virgin olive oil over the finished spread.
What to serve with homemade Lima Bean Dip (Butter Beans)
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Southern Lima Bean Dip (with Shortcuts)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 16-oz package frozen baby lima beans (2 cups fresh or frozen) No need to thaw first
- 2 cups chicken broth or water (or Vegetable broth)
- 3 cloves garlic halved or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 slices uncooked bacon
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or bacon drippings
Instructions
- Combine lima beans, chicken broth (or water), garlic, salt, and pepper in a large saucepan or small Dutch oven.
- Stack the bacon and slice into 1/4-inch wide pieces. Add about one-third of the pieces to the lima bean mixture.
- Cover; bring up to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer the lima beans 20 to 25 minutes or until very soft.
- Meanwhile, cook the remaining sliced pieces of bacon in a small skillet over medium to medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp and browned; drain on a paper towel. Reserve the bacon drippings.
- Drain the lima beans, keeping the bacon and garlic with them. Pour into a food processor or a large blender.
- Process the lima bean mixture until smooth. Add enough olive oil to the reserved bacon drippings to make 2 tablespoons. (Or, just use 2 tablespoons olive oil.) Slowly pour the bacon drippings or oil through the food chute, while the processor is running
- Spoon into a serving bowl and sprinkle with cooked, crisp bacon. Best when served warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition analysis on GritsAndGouda.com recipes are mostly calculated on an online nutrition calculator. I am not a dietitian and nutritional information is an estimate and can vary based on products used.
Updated February 2023
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