This recipe is a good side dish. It's not something people would rave about, but it's definitely a step above plain lima beans. I like it. I like that it's easy. I like that I can get it cooking early in the day when I have energy. It can be cooked for 2-12 hours in the oven, depending on the oven temp used, OR it can be cooked in the crock pot, which is how I hope to cook it most often. It's a keeper.
- Nora Ephron - She talks about several favorite recipes in her book, Heartburn. This is one she mentioned she had learned about from Lee Bailey in his book, The Way I Cook. I had not heard of combining lima beans and pears, but the combination was intriguing. After trying it, I am totally on board.
- Food Talk Central - Most of the recipes for limas and pears are cooked stovetop. However, one HOT summer evening, I was cooking something in the stove and wondered if I the limas could be cooked in the stove as well. I found this recipe and loosely followed it. I only made enough for one meal. Voila! Perfect! Also, I have a bad habit of letting beans boil over on the stove and make a mess. Cooking the beans in the oven takes care of that.
"That's the sort of food she liked to serve, something that looked like plain old baked beans and then turned out to have pears up its sleeve."
Huff Post has a wonderful article on Nora Ephron's favorite recipes. The photo above came from that article. But the photo doesn't match the description entirely. What are the toppers used in this photo? Bacon bits maybe? Some tiny bits of orange bell pepper?
Of course, the lima's and pears are mentioned. The recipe is a tad different and it even calls for longer cooking - Take 6 cups defrosted lima beans, 6 pears, peeled and cut into slices, 1/2 cup molasses, 1/2 cup chicken stock, 1/2 onion chopped, put into a heavy casserole, cover and bake 12 hours at 200 degrees.
Here's one more article by Nora Ephron published in The New Yorker. She talks about her cookbook crushes and more.
I miss Nora Ephron.
Here's the recipe as published by most sources. This makes a large amount, but can easily be reduced.
- 3 packages (10-oz.) frozen lima beans
- 2 large ripe pears, cored, peeled, and sliced crosswise
- 1 cup vegetable broth (Nora used chicken broth)
- ¼ cup brown sugar*
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- ¼ cup light molasses*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
* The first time I made it, I didn't use molasses or brown sugar and it was fine.
The recipe calls for cooking this (in a heavy 2-quart casserole) in the oven for 8 hours at 200 degrees!!!
I was cooking something else at 400, so I just went with that and cooked the beans for 30 or 40 minutes. One source recommended cooking for 2 hours at 250 degrees.
✅ I'm thinking this would be a great thing to cook in the crockpot in the future, especially in the summer when the last thing you want to do is keep an oven on all day!!!