What to Do with Home-Canned Lima Beans: Make This Spread

A Cozy Little Spread: Lima Beans + Olive Muffuletta Magic

I stood in my kitchen with a jar of home-canned large lima beans, a jar of olive muffuletta, and the need for something simple and satisfying.

I didn’t want perfection. I wanted flavor. I wanted lunch.
What I ended up with was something I’ll absolutely be making again.

The Inspiration

I’ve been making more of an effort to build meals from what I’ve grown, preserved, and already have on hand. These lima beans were pressure canned last fall. I picked up the olive muffuletta from Costco late last year. It was on clearance price and had 'the asterisk' on the sign. I already had a jar at home that I was enjoying. Naturally, I picked up a clearance jar thinking it wouldn't really go away for good. I should have picked up many jars in retrospect.  

I had initially thought I would make a bean salad with the two. While I was making sourdough bagels today, I thought a spread would go nicely with a fresh baked and toasted bagel. Well, I decided to use some hummus sensibility and put the two in my food processor and see what happened.

What I Used

• 1 cup home-canned large lima beans, plus a few spoonfuls of bean liquid

• 2–3 tablespoons olive muffuletta (mine is from That Pickle Guy—delicious and oily in the best way)

• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

• 1 garlic clove

• A generous pinch of smoked paprika

• A pinch of pink salt, to taste

• Crushed dried lemon thyme from my garden

What I Did

1. Blended it all together in my food processor.

2. Adjusted with bean liquid until it reached a soft, creamy texture.

3. Tasted, added more paprika (because yes), and let it chill in the fridge for the flavors to deepen.

The Result

Savory, smoky, lemony, briny goodness. I spread it on a homemade sourdough bagel and sat down for one of those “slow down and enjoy this” kind of lunches. The kind that reminds me that simple food, made from what you have, can feel like a gift.

How I Served It

I toasted a homemade sourdough bagel and kept it simple on one half—just the creamy lima bean and muffuletta spread. On the other, I went for a garden-inspired upgrade with fresh hydroponic greens and crisp cucumber slices.

Why I Love This

This recipe is flexible, frugal, and full of character. It made use of ingredients I had already invested time, care, and money into. And more importantly—it tasted amazing without needing anything fancy.

Feel free to riff on it with white beans, chickpeas, other herb blends, or even roasted red pepper stirred in at the end.

Let me know if you try it. And if all you have is some beans and something pickled? Give it a blend. You might just discover your own house recipe bean spread.

Thanks for being here, friend.
May everything fall into place for you today. 🌿

— Nadja 🍄