Lima Bean

This salad is dressed with a red pepper and tomato sauce.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 30 min

Although we feature smoked fish in this chowder, the recipe works equally well with fresh fillets of such white fish as cod, haddock, halibut, or snapper.

A stick-to-the-ribs-not-the-waistline chili. Great served with all the usual toppings: chopped red or green onions, chopped cilantro, shredded cheddar cheese (low-fat, of course) and nonfat yogurt.

Barley gives this a wonderful chewy texture.

Gazpacho de Habas This gazpacho has a haunting flavor — barely identifiable as lima beans — and is also excellent when you substitute pine nuts for the limas, as the chef at El Churrasco, in Córdoba, often does. The addition of an egg — not at all unusual in white gazpachos — gives this soup a creamier, richer taste. It is best served in small portions.

This dip was inspired by a recipe for bissara, a garlicky purée from Egypt made from dried broad beans, in Claudia Roden's Mediterranean Cookery.

In this recipe we used fresh baby lima beans (the frozen ones are excellent, too), but you can substitute any other fresh young shell beans such as fava or cranberry beans.

Based on a recipe from chef Angel García of Lúculo in Madrid, Spain.

We've based this carbohydrate-rich, one-dish supper on the classic Spanish paella, mixing the lima beans (which stand in for the traditional rice) with tomatoes, chicken and a bit of ham.

Even those who aren't fans of lima beans will love this recipe. The tough bean skins are completely broken down, so the texture of the purée is silky and smooth.