Okay, so what IS the difference? IS there any difference at all, botanically speaking?
The lima is pale green and comes in baby-size and Fordhook-size, and they’re right there in your grocer’s freezer, packaged by Bird’s-Eye.
The butter is lima-sized and lima-shaped, but is brown and speckly. Also in the grocer’s freezer, but packaged by the Southland Company, who also put out frozen black-eyed peas and frozen collard greens and other items of interest to the rebel forces. Also, I hear tell that some people eat them fresh.
Lima Beans and Butter Beans belong to the same species, Phaseolus lunatus, but represent different domestic varieties. The Lima Bean variety was apparently first domesticated in northwestern South America, the Butter Bean variety in Guatemala. See the link for more details.
Colibri, I know tomahtos and potahtoes and tobahccos are originally American but I did not know beans were also American. Can you confirm that? Beans are among my favorite foods.
Yes, most cultivated beans are of American origin. The Common Bean Phaseolus vulgaris includes a huge range of varieties including green beans, black beans, kidney beans, and many others. (Lima/Butter Beans are regarded as a different but closely related species P. lunatus as I mentioned in my first post.)
[Fava (Faba] or Broad Beans](http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MV017) Vicia faba, however, originated in the Mediterranean area, and the Soybean Glycine max in China.
Another well-known legume that originated in the Americas is the Peanut Arachis hypogaea.
Thank you, Colibri! Come on over to my house for dinner: lima beans simmered butter bean-style, with onions, red pepper, and a pork neckbone the size of your fist.
Well, I learn something every day. I did not know Soy beans were real beans.
Fava beans are the basis for one of the national dishes of Spain: Fabada Asturiana. I could not find a decent recipe in English, they were all pretty bad. This recipe is awful and uses lima rather than fava beans. Your best bet is to travel to Spain _
Depends on what you mean by “real” beans, since they’re in a different genus from common beans and Lima beans. But they’re in the same family (Fabaceae), unlike, say, coffee “beans” (Rubiaceae).
Other members of the bean family include peas, chickpeas/garbanzos, and lentils.
Well, I am pretty botanically ignorant but I would not consider peas, chickpeas and lentils to be beans. I believe they are all legumes though?
I guess my perception is that common beans, lima beans and fava beans are all real beans, then these plus lentils etc are legumes and coffe is not a bean at all, just a misnomer. But that’s just my vague impression and not based on anything.
I am kind of surprised favas come from the old world and other beans from the new world.
Well, “bean” is not exactly a technical botanical term. I assume the original “bean” was the fava bean, and the New World ones were called by the same name because of their general resemblance.
From Merriam-Webster:
Besides Phaseolus, the definition mentions the Hyacinth, Lablab, or Egyptian BeanDolichos lablab, whose seed pods are eaten especially in Asia, and the Mung BeanVigna radiata, which are also from the Old World.
These various beans, plus peas, chickpeas, and lentils are all legumes, that is, members of the family Leguminosae, also called the Fabaceae, which is one of the largest families of flowering plants, with 18,000 species.
