How To Build Your Next Dinner Around Protein-Rich Butter Beans

Although establishing a routine can be a good thing, dinnertime at home can become monotonous if you cycle through the same meals week after week. Regardless of your usual protein choice — whether it's chicken, ground turkey, beef, or if you're a vegetarian or vegan, tofu or lentils — it can be fun to switch things up once in a while, and butter beans are the perfect ingredient to help you do this. These versatile and lovely legumes have a mild taste that lends itself well to many other foods, making a solid basis to build a meal around.

Butter beans — also known as lima beans, depending on where you live — have many nutritional benefits. Per cup, they contain 12 grams of protein, nine grams of fiber, and 40 grams of complex carbohydrates (the good kind that keeps you full longer). They are rich in copper, which supports immune health, and magnesium, which helps with energy production. Because they are low-fat, they're a great substitute for meats high in saturated fat, such as steak or pork. Overall, butter beans help with healthy weight loss and improved heart health, so adding them to your dinner rotation is advantageous on more than just a taste level.

While there are many ways to elevate canned butter beans so they are a small player in a larger dish, such as crisping them up and using them as croutons on a salad, the goal is to have them be the main player at dinnertime. A few easy ways to achieve this are simply dressing the cooked beans with things like lemon, garlic, and fresh herbs for a Mediterranean flare or subbing out your meat for these white beans, like in a Tuscan chicken recipe. Make the cream sauce with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes as you normally would, but rather than pouring it over the chicken, add the beans to the sauce while it simmers.

Another straightforward idea is to use butter beans as your main source of protein at dinner. You can make a classic, meatless chili with other beans like kidney, black, and garbanzo beans. This will give the dish a variety of textures while still feeling meaty. If you're looking for something cooler, this chilled butter bean soup with peanut-corn relish is a great way to incorporate these legumes into your summer suppers. Whether you're looking to add variety to your meals, want to cut out meat, or benefit from their nutritional value, butter beans make a great staple at the dinner table.