The addition of miso to simple sautéed butter beans and greens with garlic and shallot creates a dish that’s so savory and flavorful! This mixture can be paired with a whole grain or served over toasted bread for an easy and nutritious meal.

There’s really no easier or more nourishing meal starter than some mixture of beans and greens.

As a longtime plant-based eater, I’ve come to rely on the duo for protein and a wide array of micronutrients: iron, zinc, and calcium among them.

I turn to beans and greens when I’m stumped about what to cook for dinner, or any other meal. When in doubt, beans and greens to the rescue.

In my home, they’re usually accompanied by a whole grain or some sort of bread-y thing.

The trifecta of grains, beans, and greens never fails to deliver on satisfaction. (It’s dear enough to my heart that I’ve written a whole cookbook about it.)

On their own, beans and greens are a canvas for flavor. They can be very plain and will become as elaborately seasoned as you want them to be.

The miso butter beans and greens that I’m sharing today illustrate how a few bold flavors—in this case, white miso, garlic, and shallot—turn a humble duo of foods into a memorable dish.

Butter beans are having a (well-deserved) moment

Beans have been a dietary staple of mine for years; at any given moment, I’m likely to have cans of chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans in my pantry.

I’ve also always been a big fan of white beans, with their creamy texture and tremendous versatility. I make a pot of brothy white beans about once a month, or sometimes even more.

In the past several years, I’ve noticed one particular type of white bean finding its way into viral recipes on social media. Suddenly, butter beans are all the rage.

What are butter beans? You may actually know them as lima beans.

In the US, lima beans are often sold frozen. They have a pale green color, and they’re actually baby, or immature, lima beans.

Mature lima beans have a pale white or beige color and a wide, flat shape. They can be sold dried or cooked, in cans.

These are the beans that are used to make gigantes plaki, a classic Greek dish that I remember from growing up. Nowadays, I’m one of the many people who loves butter beans for their tender consistency, and satisfying, plump size.

I purchase butter beans canned, and there are options to choose from: Wegmans, Bush’s, and Goya all produce canned butter beans.

If you love to cook dried beans from scratch, then you can search for a bag of large white beans labeled as “lima” or “gigante.”

Miso butter beans and greens ingredients

Most of my go-to beans and greens recipes, including my cumin-spiced lentils and rice and beans and greens pasta, feature simple ingredient lists.

These miso butter beans and greens are no exception. You won’t need much to bring this meal to life.

The greens

I like to use kale as my dark, leafy green of choice here, and I’m especially partial to Tuscan, or lacinato, kale.

It’s fine to substitute another leafy green for kale. Spinach, Swiss chard, broccoli rabe, and bok choy are only some examples of greens that would work well here.

The beans

Much as I’ve come to love butter beans, they’re not your only choice of legume for the recipe. Other white beans, like cannellini or great northern, will work.

And if you don’t have either of those, you can try the recipe with kidney or pinto beans.

White miso

White miso is the type that I use most often in recipes because I like its mild, slightly sweet flavor profile. If you have a red or brown miso at home, then it’s fine to make a swap.

Keep in mind that white miso is generally less salty than other types. You may wish to decrease the amount of miso to three teaspoons, rather than four, if you use brown or red.

Broth

Vegetable broth is what I usually reach for at home, though I also keep vegan chicken-style broth around for soy curl chicken strips and chickpea noodle soup. It’s fine to use either style of broth for your miso beans and greens.

Shallot & garlic

I always keep shallots at home for making my simple champagne vinaigrette, but I also love to cook with them. Their flavor is a little sweeter and more mellow than that of onions.

Since shallots are small, they’re easy to chop and throw into quick and easy dishes.

If you don’t have a shallot at home, it’s fine to use a small white or yellow onion (or half of a large onion) in its place.

Meanwhile, the recipe calls for two cloves of garlic. I’m a supertaster and tend to be conservative with garlic, so feel free to increase the quantity to four or five cloves if you prefer more.

Lemon juice and zest

Lemon juice and zest give the beans and greens necessary brightness and acid. As with the garlic, you can increase or decrease the amount of lemon juice to taste.

Preparing miso butter beans and greens

Oh, the beauty of a quick and easy, one-skillet recipe.

This meal is sort of a shortcut version of my great big pot of braised beans and kale. They key differences are that you don’t have to cook beans from scratch and you have the option to use a roomy frying pan or skillet, rather than a big, heavy-bottomed pot.

Step 1: Sauté the shallot and garlic

Shallots tend to cook up quickly, so this should only take about two minutes.

Step 2: Add beans and broth to the skillet

Next, you’ll add your beans and broth (vegetable or chicken-style) to the skillet. Once the broth is simmering, use a ladle to remove a quarter cup from the skillet and transfer it to a heatproof bowl or measuring cup.

This broth will become part of your miso slurry.

Step 3: Add greens to the skillet

Add your chopped kale (or other leafy green) to the skillet in handfuls, stirring and wilting the greens down as you work.

Cover the skillet and allow the greens to simmer and cook for 7-8 minutes, or until they’re tender.

Step 4: Create a miso slurry

Add your white miso to the reserved, warm broth and whisk together until you have a creamy miso slurry.

Once the greens are cooked, you’ll stir this slurry, along with the lemon zest and juice, into the beans and greens.

Step 5: Season and serve

Apply the golden rule of cooking here, and taste the miso beans and greens before you serve them. You can adjust salt, freshly ground black pepper, and lemon juice to your liking at this point.

Finally, serve the beans. I think they’re really great over a bowl of farro, rice, barley, or quinoa. But I probably eat them most often over toasted bread.

That bread could be a nice, big slice of your favorite sourdough or peasant bread. I also really like to pair this recipe with my easy vegan multigrain bread, and it’s excellent along with a few squares of the focaccia from The Vegan Week.

To make a vegan pasta recipe more protein-rich, you can easily stir in a scoop or two of the miso butter beans and greens.

No matter how you choose to serve them, I think the beans and greens are even better with an extra drizzle of olive oil. A squeeze of lemon or dash of red pepper flakes never hurt, either.

Storage and freezing

Another thing to love about this meal: it’s easy to store or freeze. You can keep leftover portions in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days or freeze them for up to eight weeks.

A friend of mine once described this kind of meal as “almost soup on toast.”

I had to laugh—it’s a perfect way of summing up a lot of my every day lunches, including my braised lentils on toast and this savory mixture.

I hope the meal will find its way into your heart and meal rotation, just as it’s snuck into mine.

xo