Mushy Lima Beans With Garlic

Bad Photograph, I know.

I can't remember where I got the idea to do this (magazine, food blog?) but I'm glad I finally did. I imagine it would work just as well with peas (a sort of dressed-up mushy peas). I do think you need a food mill to get the right texture, as a food processor will make it far too smooth (and you don't want the skins anyway.





Danny scrunched-up his nose and said he wasn't interested in "ushy-gushy green food", but once he got a taste of it, the suspect vegetables disappeared pretty quickly.





You Will Need:





1 bag frozen lima beans (I used baby ones, but Fordhooks would be fine)


1 bulb garlic


olive oil for drizzling garlic


salt/pepper


heavy cream





In a 425 degree oven roast a bulb of garlic (slice top off, drizzle with olive oil and seal in a piece of foil. Place on middle rack and bake 20-25 minutes or until quite soft.





Cook the lima beans until quite soft. Drain and refresh under cold water.





Put lima beans through a food mill. Remove roasted garlic from bulb and skins (I shouldn't need to point that out, but I get some of the weirdest Google searches, so I won't leave anything to chance) and add to the lima beans. With a potato masher, combine well. Begin adding the cream as you mash and keep adding in a thin stream until you get a light (but not runny) consistency. This is largely a matter of taste, much as with mashed potatoes. I used about 1/4 of a cup.





Add salt and pepper and re-heat gently before serving.