Kidney bean and corn dishes are having their day in the sun. I see recipes for them all the time, and they are served at many restaurants. Last week I went out for lunch, and had a lovely kidney bean and corn salad. So I was pleased to come across a Baked Succotash recipe that called for kidney beans in a hundred-year-old magazine.
I was a little surprised by the recipe name. I generally think of succotash as a mixture of lima beans and corn, but it apparently is a general term for bean and corn combinations. In any case, I decided to give the Baked Succotash recipe a try.
In addition to the kidney beans and corn, the recipe called for a little chopped green pepper. Beaten egg is stirred into the vegetables, and then it is baked.
The Baked Succotash was tasty, but a little dry (and a few of the kidney beans split). The vegetables were lightly bonded to one another other by the egg coating, but since there was no milk, it did not have the creaminess of a scalloped vegetable dish. After I made this dish, I actually wondered why the recipe author decided to bake the succotash. If I made this recipe again, I might have a tendency just to heat the vegetables on the top of the stove . . . or I might adapt the recipe and add a white sauce to the egg to make Scalloped Succotash . . . or . . .
Bottom line: Kidney beans and corn are a wonderful combination. And, I want to make dishes with this combination again in the future, but I’ll probably experiment a little when I do rather than replicating the Baked Succotash recipe.
Here’s the original recipe:
When I made this recipe, it took more than 30 minutes for the food to get hot and for the egg to thicken.
Here’s the Bake Succotash recipe updated for modern cooks:
Baked Succotash
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinses
1 can corn, drained (or 1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed)
1 tablespoon green pepper, finely chopped
Step 1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
Step 2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, salt, and pepper.
Step 3. Add the kidney beans, corn, and green pepper. Stir gently to coat the vegetables with the egg mixture.
Step 4. Put in a baking dish (a 1-quart dish works well), and place in oven. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, or until hot.
Interesting! I really like kidney beans…and corn… but never have eaten them together. Growing up, my mom would cook lima beans (we called them butterbeans), corn and diced potatoes together. So that was our version of succotash. I learned, later in life, that many times, succotash contains tomatoes. Mom wasn’t a tomato fan, and neither am I. Good luck with your further experiments with your kidney bean and corn dishes!
It was always lima beans and corn for my family. Your recipe looks very Mexican, as those ingredients are often used together.
So THAT’s what Succotash is! I’ve come across it in American novels from time to time and never known what it could be,