Okay, breakfast of this champion at least. What am I doing calling myself a champion, you ask? Hey, didn’t you hear? Self-affirmation is good for you. Ha.
I should tell you first I’m not much of a savory-beans eater—when I grew up in Asia most beans were in desserts. I haven’t really been able to get over that childhood silliness. Not helping the matter is how most beans are hardly worth eating anyway—flavorless, old supermarket beans with a texture of decomposing bread, or Mexican refried beans as thick as cement paste.
Anyway, my friend Steve of Rancho Gordo gave me a bag of giant lima beans the other day. Before you jump on my case for taking and plugging freebies, I should tell you I work for them beans! When Steve is alone at the Saturday farmers market—rare now that he’s got his gal pal Joan helping out - I would keep his stall for him while he takes a pee break! Plenty of people have seen me selling beans. There may have even been photographic evidence.
These lima beans are giant and despite what I’ve heard about lima beans, Steve assured me they are muy tasty. So I took them, and yesterday morning turned them into this crazy good breakfast.
It’s so easy to make it’s hardly worth writing a recipe. But here it is anyway if you insist on one.
Lima beans and bacon for champions:
Serves Two
1/2 cup Lima beans
6 slices of thick-cut bacon
1 small onion, chopped
2 eggs (optional)
Instructions:
Soak the beans at least six hours to overnight. Drain and add the beans to a pot, fill with water to cover the beans by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down a bit and cook for 45 minutes or until done. Drain. You can cook the beans in advance and keep in the fridge to be used the next morning. That’s what I did.
Cut the bacon into small pieces, about 1cm wide. Add them to a frying pan and spread them all around. Turn the heat on to medium-high, let the bacon pieces cook down to render all the fat. When the fat is rendered and the bacon crispy, remove the bacon pieces and most of the fat from the pan. Reserve both the bacon and the fat.
