Creamy Thyme Butter Beans

Simple and classic, these creamy thyme butter beans aka lima beans are a family favorite, the perfect side dish for any meal. And they are so easy! 

First of all, I need to clarify what I mean by butter beans. Many in the world would call these green delights lima beans. In the southern United States or at the very least in Louisiana where I was born and many my forebears before me, they are called butter beans. 

It wasn’t until I was a full grown up that I found out that more the mature white butter beans existed. I’ll eat those too, if well cooked and soft but for my money, the tender green lima beans are the best. The older white ones can be quite starchy and dry but cream helps so they can also work in this recipe.

This simple recipe was my mom’s favorite way to eat lima beans. She waxed lyrical about my grandmother’s light hand with this dish. A generous pour of rich cream, a sprinkling of thyme, often dried thyme because that’s what Mo had on hand. I like to use fresh thyme, which Mom also appreciated and I was happy to cook this for her, whenever she asked.

Creamy Thyme Butter Beans

If you can find shelled fresh beans, by all means, use them. I made these with frozen beans but I've also used canned ones before, drained and rinsed. When fresh purple hull or zipper cream peas are in season, I’ve made this with them as well. 

Ingredients

1 lb or 450g frozen butter/lima beans

1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste as desired

2/3 cup or 156ml heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme 

Several generous grinds black pepper

Pinch cayenne

Optional for garnish: more thyme

Method

Thaw and rinse the beans with warm water. Discard any loose pods or discolored beans. 

Put the beans just covered with water with the salt in a small pot.

Bring the water to a boil then simmer the beans until tender. This could take just 10 minutes with very fresh young beans, a little longer with older ones. The instructions on my bag of frozen baby limas said to bring to a boil then simmer for 20-25 minutes! Only you can judge if they are tender enough for you. I will say, try to choose the biggest ones to test.  

When they are tender, taste a bean and see if it has absorbed enough salt to your liking. If not, add another teaspoon of salt to the water, let stand for 10 minutes, and then drain in a colander.

Return the warm beans to the pot, over a very low heat then add in the cream and stir to coat. 

Stir in the thyme. Gently heat the cream till warm through but be careful not to not let it boil. 

Add in a few generous grinds of black pepper and a pinch of cayenne. 

Serve warm, garnished with more thyme, if desired. 

Enjoy!

As I mentioned above, I grew up eating butter beans/lima beans and didn’t know they were almost universally reviled! Why do many people hate limas? Perhaps because they weren’t cooked well. Today my Sunday FunDay friends and I are trying to change that! We are celebrating Lima Bean Respect Day ahead of the official date on April 20th. All hail the might LIMA. 

Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Cam. Check out the links below. 

• Butter Beans Curry, Maharashtrian Sprouted Usal, Instant Pot Recipe by Cook with Renu
• Creamy Thyme Butter Beans by Food Lust People Love
• Greek Yogurt Soup With Zucchini, Lima Beans &; Red Lentils by Sneha's Recipe
• Ham & Baby Lima Bean Soup by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Pizza Beans by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Southern Style Green Lima Beans by Making Miracles
• Summer Squash Succotash by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Vaal Nu Shaak by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Why All the Hate? Recipes to Convert Lima Bean Despisers by Culinary Cam

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Hazelnut Vodka

If you love Frangelico but think it’s a bit too sweet, like I do, this is the drink for you! Hazelnut Vodka is perfect for sipping straight or over ice. 

I’ve mentioned before about the amazing cherry tree in our back garden in Paris years ago but I don’t think I’ve written about the prolific hazelnut tree out front. It was actually in our neighbor’s yard, Madame Coucou we named her because that is what she called out over our party wall to get my attention. Coucou, coucou! Always with a big smile.

The tree grew right up near that wall so a goodly portion of it hung over our side. It took me a while to figure out what they were because I had never seen a fresh nut in its little fuzzy green outer coat. As they ripen, that turns brown and the nuts are ready for harvest, often falling to the ground on their own. During the season, hazelnuts were literally everywhere.

Unlike the cherries that we turned into jam and pie and cherry bounce, we just shelled and ate the hazelnuts. I wish I had had this recipe back then! 

Hazelnut Vodka 

If you have hazelnuts with the shells still on, it will take about 8 ¾ oz or 248g to get the required amount shelled for this recipe. This recipe is adapted from one in Abundance: Eating and living with the seasons by Mark Diacono.  

Ingredients

3 ½ oz or 100g shelled hazelnuts

¾ cup or caster sugar 

4 cups or 946ml vodka 

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

Method

Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C. Spread the hazelnuts out on a baking pan and roast them for about 15 minutes or so, checking after 10. The skins should darken but you don’t want them to burn!

Remove the pan from the oven and pour the hazelnuts into a towel.  

Wrap them up and leave them to steam for a couple of minutes. 

Rub them through the towel, squeezing and rolling to remove most of the skins. 

Pick the hazelnuts out of the skins and put them into a food processor. Use a few short pulses to grind them into a coarse rubble. You want some small bits and some medium bits. Nothing too fine. 

In a large, wide-mouthed jar, stir the sugar into 1 cup or 240ml of the vodka until it dissolves. 

Add the chopped hazelnuts, allspice and the rest of the vodka and stir together. 

Stir well! 

Screw the lid on and set it someplace out of direct sunlight, where you’ll see it. 

Shake the jar once a day. 

I left mine for about a week before tasting it. Divine! Very hazelnutty! Leave it another week or two if you’d like – I did - but it’s very drinkable after one week.

Strain through a fine sieve and/or muslin and funnel into a sterilized bottle or jar. 

Enjoy!

I made this last Christmastime and after we sipped a bit, I stashed it behind the bar and forgot about it. I pulled it back out when I was writing this post to discover that sediment had settled to the bottom. I decanted it, leaving that sediment behind and it's much less opaque now. Still delicious though! 

Welcome to the 8th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter H. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the H recipes below:

• 3 Ingredient Hot Fudge Sauce from Blogghetti
• Creamy Cilantro Herb Caribbean Potato Salad from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Haluski from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Harissa and Brie No Knead Focaccia from A Messy Kitchen
• Hazelnut Vodka from Food Lust People Love
• Homemade Chilli Oil from Sneha’s Recipe
• Honeynut Squash Soup with Apple and Bacon from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Hot Chocolate Rolls from Magical Ingredients
• Vegetable Hariyali from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Whipped Honey from Jolene’s Recipe Journal

Here are my posts for the 2026 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew

B: Baby Cos Peach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing 

C. Traditional Cullen Skink 

D. Coconut Cream Date Caramel 

E. Edamame Summer Salad 

F. Lamb Feta Mint Patties 

G. Ricotta Gnocchi à la Poêle 

H. Hazelnut Vodka - this post!

To check out the Alphabet Challenges for 2024 and 2025, click here.

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Sfincione Siciliano #BreadBakers

Sfincione Siciliano is a staple street food of Sicily, with a fluffy bread base topped with strong cheese and a rich onion anchovy tomato sauce, finished with breadcrumbs, more cheese and oregano.

 

Sfincione is pronounced sfeen-CHOH-neh (IPA: /sfin'tʃoːne/) in Italian. From what I can discern, it’s like if focaccia married cheese pizza with a little nod to Ligurian pissalandrea in the sauce but without the black olives. Yeah, a little mixed up maybe but the Sicilians are on to something! It’s delicious. 

I shared four pieces with my brother- and sister-in-law and when she sent me a thank you text, she called them pizza squares. Perfect name! If you can't say sfincione, just tell your family you are making pizza squares for dinner. 

Sfincione Siciliano 

The traditional cheese for this dish is called Siciliano Caciocavallo but the interwebs assure me that the best substitute is an aged provolone for both taste and texture. This recipe is adapted from one on Tavol Arte Gusto and makes one sfincione in a 12x17 in or 30x43cm pan. Start this recipe early in the day to allow for the three rising sessions. 

Ingredients

For the base:

1 teaspoon dried active yeast

1 ½ cups or 355ml warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

3 cups or 380g 00 Italian flour

2/3 cup or 100g re-milled durum wheat semolina

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a little extra for greasing the pan

For the onion sauce:

3 medium-sized onions

2 tablespoons olive oil (use the oil from the anchovies and top up if needed)

2 anchovy fillets in olive oil

1 can (1 lb 12oz or 800g) peeled Italian tomatoes

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

For the toppings:

7 oz or 200g Sicilian Caciocavallo or Provolone Stravecchio

5 – 6 anchovy fillets in oil

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

2-3 sprigs fresh oregano

Method

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, along with the teaspoon of sugar. Within a few minutes, it should start to create bubbles and foam up. This is how you know your yeast has been activated.

Measure your 00 flour, semolina and salt into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, if using. 

Add the yeast dissolved in water, and knead until you’ve created a soft dough. 

Little by little, add the oil—continuing to knead throughout.

The dough should appear smooth and well-developed (forming a cohesive elastic mass.) Finally, shape the dough into a ball.

 Cover the bowl and let the dough to rise for at least 3 hours; it should quadruple in volume.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce. First, thinly slice the onions.

 

Place them in a pot with the oil and anchovies. Let them heat through for 5–6 minutes over high heat.

Puree the tomatoes in a blender (or with a hand blender), then add them to the onion pot. 

 

Fill the tomato can up about a quarter with water to make sure you get all of the tomato out and add it to the pot as well. 

Bring to a low boil then the sauce over low heat for about 45 minutes.

The result should be a rich, thick sauce. Add the baking soda and salt and stir well. 

Remove from the heat and set aside and to cool.

Finally, take the risen dough and spread it out in a 12x17 in or 30x43cm baking pan lightly greased with oil. Spread the dough using your fingers, gently tapping it with your fingertips trying your best not to pop any air bubbles.

Add the anchovy fillets broken into bits.

At this point, cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for another hour or so.

Cut most of the cheese into pieces and grate a little, about 3-4 tablespoons. Mix the grated cheese with the breadcrumbs.

After that rise in the pan, add the remaining toppings to the dough: first the pieces of cheese.

Followed by the sauce.

Then finish with the grated cheese/breadcrumbs, and a handful of fresh oregano leaves.

Finally, let it rise for another hour. Near the end of rising time, preheat your oven to 475°F or 246°C.

Bake the sfincione in the hot oven, on the lowest rack or, if possible, in direct contact with the oven floor for 10 minutes. Move the pan to the middle-upper rack, to bake for another 20 minutes or so. The topping should be dry and the base nice and puffy and golden.

Remove from the baking pan. 

Cut in squares to serve. Golden bottom! I was a bit concerned by the dark edges, but the bottom was lovely and crunchy.

So fluffy! 

Enjoy!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which means it’s time for my Bread Baker group to share their recipes. Our theme this month is Italian bread. Many thanks to our host, Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories. Check out the links below.

• Cornetti Dolci (Italian Croissants) from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Focaccia Bread Art from Making Miracles
• No-Knead Green Chutney Focaccia with Tofu from Cook with Renu
• No Knead Potato Focaccia from Sneha's Recipe
• Overnight Ciabatta from A Messy Kitchen
• Overnight Focaccia from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sfincione Siciliano from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Cherry Tomato Focaccia from Zesty South Indian Kitchen

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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