Succotash from “Southern from Scratch”

About the recipe

In the summer of 2016, I stopped by my friend Elliott Moss’s Asheville, North Carolina, whole hog restaurant, Buxton Hall, for lunch. As he often generously does whenever he happens to see us from the kitchen, Elliott brought us out a sample of something he’d been working on. On this particular occasion, that happened to be succotash.

Mind you, I grew up eating succotash, a dish containing lima beans, sweet corn, other field beans, and, sometimes okra and tomatoes. Elliott’s succotash, however, was both familiar and brand new. In short, it was the best, most enlivening iteration of succotash that I had ever tasted, and serves as the inspiration for my version here. Though different, our dishes share the same brightness and freshness, infusing each bite with the essence of summertime.

From “Southern from Scratch: Pantry Essentials and Down-Home Recipes” by Ashley English, © 2018 by Ashley English. Photographs by Johnny Autry, © 2018 by Johnny Autry. Reprinted by arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO.

Serves: 6 to 8

Hands On Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour and 0 minutes

Ingredients

3 strips bacon

1 onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

8 ounces okra, cut into bite-size rounds

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound yellow summer squash

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved if small, quartered if large

5 ears corn, shucked and cut from the cob (about 2 1/2 cups kernels)

1 pound baby lima beans, cooked al dente

2 teaspoons sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Instructions

Warm a Dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Place the bacon into the pan and cook just until it starts to get crispy. Remove the cooked strips to a plate lined with a paper towel. Once cooled, crumble or chop the bacon into small pieces.

Add the onion, bell pepper, and okra to the bacon grease in the pot. Sauté for 10 to 12 minutes, until the vegetables begin to brown around the edges.

Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the squash and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the reserved bacon pieces. Add the butter, stirring until melted.

Stir in the cherry tomatoes, corn, lima beans, salt, and several grinds of pepper. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the basil. Let sit for a few minutes, and stir before serving.