Lovely Limas

I hope everyone affected is recovering from Snowpocalpyse 2011.  I was grateful that my neighbor threw a plow blade on a 4-wheeler and took care of my driveway.  Maybe all the snow lately is why I've fallen in love with lima beans... their pale green bodies are the same color as new leaves in the spring, and man am I jonesing for spring. 

I really am obsessed with the limas right now.  I've been eating them once or twice a day, every day for at least two weeks.  And whew, that's alot of fiber, people.

luluisforlovers (Creative Commons-Flickr)

I've had them plain as a side dish, added to rotini with chopped ham, added to stir-fry with cubed beef and some other veggies, and in a thrown-together homemade soup.  I think my favorite way was the pasta dish.  I made a faux alfredo sauce by making a white sauce and replacing half the flour with grated parmesan cheese; it was perfect with the ham and pretty green little beans.

What's there to love?  What's in a lima bean?  According to The World's Healthiest Foods, not only are they chock-full of heart-healthy fiber, they are also a good source of magnesium and folate which can reduce your chances of heart attack.  Natures-health-foods.com says they also contain the mineral molybdenum that can help if you are senstive to sulfites.  Sulfites are preservatives common in salad bars and deli foods.  And I was surprised to read that one cup of pretty little lima beans contains 24.9% of your daily value of iron.

So they're good for you and they're yummy.  What's not to love?  Have you had lima beans recently?  What's your favorite way to prepare them?