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This post is part of the Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday blog carnivals. For more recipes and fun food ideas, check out Tasty Tuesday on Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday on Blessed with Grace.

I found some dried Christmas Lima beans at the farmer’s market and I wanted to try something different for dinner: Creole Succotash with Christmas Lima Beans. This dish is full of flavor, and it’s super nutritious. And since it’s a one-pot meal, it’s easy to make without a lot of fuss or extra pans to wash.

It’s also very budget friendly. I added shrimp and ham to make this a great one-pot meal that my toddler LOVES (you can leave out the shrimp or ham if you are pinching pennies — but I think they make it much more nutritious).

This meal is also gluten-free and casein-free. And it’s made with homemade chicken stock, so you get all those minerals and other healthy benefits of eating bone broth (it really helps to heal your digestive tract). It also freezes very well. Make extra and freeze in smaller portions for future meals.

Creole succotash is a very traditional American (at least North American) dish. I’d call this New American cuisine, since it’s a melange of North American traditions.

Succotash, consisting of corn and beans, is traditionally Native American and the Creole seasoning comes from Louisiana Creole tradition. Lima beans come from Peru (hence, the name, Lima). I used Christmas Lima beans, which are a special, very pretty variety, but you can use any type of Lima beans.

If you’re on the SCD or GAPS diet, this meal is a great alternative for a filling and nutritious dinner or lunch — instead of rice or pasta. Lima beans are allowed on the GAPS diet, but corn is not. To make this recipe GAPS diet/SCD-legal, simply use frozen peas or green beans instead of corn. Not exactly a traditional succotash, but your kids won’t know the difference!

This recipe is modified from a recipe by Chef Emeril Lagasse.

Creole Succotash with Christmas Lima Beans

Ingredients:
1 pound (or more) dried Christmas Lima beans (you an also use plain lima beans if you can’t find Christmas Lima beans)
Filtered water
Organic or pastured chicken stock (homemade if you’ve got it)
2 TBS duck fat, lard, bacon grease, chicken fat, olive oil, or coconut oil (you can also use butter or ghee)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Creole seasoning to taste (recipe below)
1 bay leaf
1 organic or pastured ham hock (optional)
1 pound frozen organic corn
1 pound cooked wild shrimp, peeled and deveined (frozen is fine — but do not buy farmed shrimp)
1 pound cooked nitrate-free ham, bacon, or sausage (I used leftover ham steak from dinner a few nights ago)
2-3 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and chopped (organic if possible)
1 bunch asparagus, chopped (optional — asparagus is in season right now so I added it in)

1. Soak the Lima beans overnight in a pot of filtered water. Add a little water as necessary to make sure the beans stay covered with water. (I say a pound of dried beans but you can do more. You need 2 pounds of soaked/cooked beans for this recipe. If you want to soak more, just freeze the extras after you soak them overnight and you can use them for another recipe.)

2. The next day, rinse and drain the beans.

3. Add 2 TBS of oil or fat to Dutch oven or heavy stockpot and set on medium heat. When the fat is melted, add the onion and garlic and cook until soft.

4. Add about a teaspoon of the Creole seasoning (recipe below). Throw in a bay leaf.

5. Add the soaked beans and cover with chicken stock (if your chicken stock is frozen into cubes, keep adding and melting them until the beans are covered). Add the optional ham hock.

4. Bring to a boil and then turn it down to low heat and simmer for 1-2 hours, until the beans are cooked through, but not mushy. (If you like, you can do this step ahead.)

5. When the beans are cooked through, throw in the rest of the ingredients and cook until the flavors have melted, adding more Creole seasoning as you go. If you need to, you can throw in uncooked frozen shrimp — it will cook quickly. You can also just throw your corn in frozen.

6. Serve with crusty sourdough bread and butter. Or, if you’re doing the GAPS diet, you can always make something gluten-free and grain-free: coconut flour bread or almond bread and serve it with ghee and/or coconut oil.

Creole Seasoning

Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

This is basically Emeril’s recipe, without garlic and onion powder, dried thyme and oregano. I didn’t have any of those things so I left them out. It still came out great! (I’m not about to run to the store for a dried garlic powder!)

If you have these spices, add 2 tablespoons of the garlic powder and 1 tablespoon each of the onion powder, dried thyme and oregano.

Mix together and store in a container in your spice cupboard.

Don’t forget to check out Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for more recipes!