Black Bean Succotash

This Black Bean Succotash is a great side for a quick and easy dinner or as a main vegetarian dish that gets done in minutes!

I made a version of this succotash for a Private Dinner client a few months ago. The clients, midwesterners from Indiana loved Southern Food, in an inventive and reinterpreted manner. They were folks after my own heart: pure exploratory eaters! People that have curious palettes and like to eat with an open mind. I made them this version of Black Bean Succotash. It’s uniqueness comes from replacing the Lima Beans in traditional Succotash with Black Beans and introducing Caribbean flavors into the Southern side dish. All mounted with whipped cinnamon butter.

Funky….but keep an open mind here!

A little backstory!

I thought Succotash was originally Southern.

Wrong!

Succotash comes from a Native American tribe. It means “broken corn kernels” in Narragansett. It’s been popular throughout the Great Depression as it’s an inexpensive way to get all the essential Amino Acids the body needs by combining a legume with a grain- not unlike black beans and rice for Hispanics! 

According to Yankee Magazine, New England’s everything magazine, the dish started there, as a likely candidate for table real estate at the First Thanksgiving between the Indians and Pilgrims. Over time the dish has evolved, mostly concentrating on Corn, Lima Beans, and anything else you can throw at it.

It’s still evolving!

Bobby Flay has a black bean corn succotash recipe that plays off the Southwest flavors using Chiles. Which sounds great on a tostada shell!

But for this couple I wanted to give them something new:

Cross out the Lima Beans, bring in Black beans, Carrots, Zucchini, Tomatoes, Sage, Lemon Zest, and Sweet Potatoes. Basically anything you have in the fridge plays well with the black beans here. Its versatile because the beans have such a broad base flavor that any acidity or sweetness that you mix with it will be highlighted even more. It’s like dancing on a dance floor vs. dancing on a trampoline, it works!

Making it is super easy.I used any medley of vegetables on hand. Chopped Carrots, Zucchini, and Sweet potatoes. What’s bringing it together is a can of black beans, well seasoned with salt, black pepper, Paprika and Lime Juice. Just a quick toss in the bowl and mount with a little melted butter.

Dassit!