Canning lima beans fresh or dried is the basis for a nutritious, quick, and tasty meal that will lower your grocery budget. If you have a busy night you will have all your lima beans cooked and ready to use. They are great for a quick side dish sauteed with a little butter or added into casseroles and soups.
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Canning lima beans safely
All beans are low acid foods (pH above 4.6) that provide a good environment for the growth of Clostridium botulinum, the bacterial cause of botulism. For safety, beans must be pressure canned by a scientifically tested process.
Can you use a water bath canner?
The simple answer is, you don't. To can beans safely, you must use a pressure cooker to avoid botulism! Please don't risk it.
Pressure canning 101
If you are new to canning, then be sure and read through HOW TO START CANNING AT HOME. Learning the basic steps of canning for beginners is a fun and economical way to make great tasting fresh foods available to enjoy year-round.
If you are new to pressure canning or want to get more confident using your pressure canner, please visit my post Learn How To Pressure Can.
Pressure canning at home is easy and safe if you take the time to learn proper procedures. Start by becoming familiar with A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO CANNING TERMS.
How to measure beans for canning
How many pounds of beans per pressure pot? ?
Beans vary in size, so the outcome is different depending on what type of bean you are canning. I found that one pound of dried limes equals 2 pints. However, 1 pound of red beans equaled a little over 3 pints. One pound of chickpeas equals 2 pints.
Usually, 5 pounds of beans are needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 3¼ pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints.
Guide to measuring beans
1 pound dry beans = 2 cups dry beans. This will yield 5-6 cups of cooked beans. This is an average figure, and the size of the bean might change the outcome.
Canning lima beans
You can choose to can just picked fresh beans or dried beans. Both create a delicious addition to meals.
How to can dried limas
- Overnight method: Place dried beans or peas in a large pot and cover with water. Soak for 12 to 18 hours in a cool place. Quick method: To quickly hydrate beans, you may cover sorted and washed beans with boiling water in a saucepan. Boil 2 minutes, remove from heat, soak for 1 hour and drain.
- Drain water.
- Cover beans soaked by either method with fresh water and boil for 30 minutes.
- Add ½ teaspoon of salt per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart to the jar, if desired.
- Fill jars with beans or peas and cooking water, leaving 1-inch headspace.
- Place lids on jars and screw ring on finger tight.
- Process according to chart.
How to can fresh limas
- Shell the beans and wash them thoroughly. Fill the jars loosely, leaving 1-inch headspace
- Next, cover beans in a large pot with water and heat to boiling.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to pint jars or 1 teaspoon to quart jars.
- Fill the jars loosely, leaving 1-inch headspace. Process according to chart.
TIPS
- Don't skip rehydrating dried beans. This will help keep them from expanding too much in the canning jars. If they are not rehydrated, they absorb all the liquid leaving them in a dry jar. This will yield a dry, tough bean.
- Be sure to strain out the soaking water. This will remove the starches they’ve released during soaking and result in higher quality home-canned beans.
- Follow instructions carefully and do not change the processing time to assure you have a safe and delicious product.
Recipe ideas
There are so many ways to use your home-canned beans easily. It's cheaper than regular canned grocery beans, and the flavor is better when you can your own, which makes your recipes even better.
Soups that use beans
Home-canned vegetable soup is a flavorful, high-quality soup that saves money, builds self-reliance, and creates quick and easy meals.
Vegan White Bean Chili is a healthy and hearty meal loaded with three varieties of canned beans, fresh corn, and authentic Mexican spice. It’s also gluten and dairy-free.
Hummus recipes
One of my favorite ways to use my canned chickpeas is hummus. Canning your own yields a better flavor bean than store-bought cans. This leads to a better tasting hummus.
Canned lima beans: Lima bean hummus is a smooth buttery dip that is perfect with crackers, bread, and vegetables or as a condiment on sandwiches.
Try some of these 50 delicious and unique hummus recipes—fun ingredients such as beetroot, carrot, avocado, and various veggies, beans, and spices.
What are other beans to can?
Canning chickpeas yourself yields a superior product and opens the door to creating unique flavors not found in common grocery store cans of chickpeas.
It's easy Canning Beans. Generally, the process is the same for all kinds of beans. Try canning black beans, great northern beans, kidney beans, navy beans, pinto beans, red beans, and many others.
Recipe
Canning Lima Beans
Note:
To save you ink, video and equipment images will not print.
Ingredients
- 5 pounds lima beans fresh or dried
- 7 teaspoons salt
- water
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Instructions
Canning Dried Beans
- Overnight method: Place dried lima beans in a large pot and cover with water. Soak for 12 to 18 hours in a cool place. Quick method: To quickly hydrate beans, you may cover sorted and washed lima beans with boiling water in a saucepan. Boil 2 minutes, remove from heat, soak for 1 hour and drain.
- Drain water.
- Cover lima beans soaked by either method with fresh water and boil for 30 minutes.
- Add ½ teaspoon of salt per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart to the jar, if desired.
- Fill jars with lima beans and cooking water, leaving 1-inch headspace. Run your bubble popper through the jar to remove air bubbles and wipe the rims.
- Place lids on jars and screw ring on finger tight.
- Place the jars carefully into the pressure canner on the canning rack. Leave space in between the jars. Once the jars are all in the canner, adjust the water level per your pressure canner’s instructions. If adding water, use the hot water from the small pot you used to warm your lids.
- Process pint jars of lima beans at 10 pounds of pressure 75 minutes at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft. Process quart jars of lima beans at 10 pounds of pressure 90 minutes at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft. Follow the directions for your pressure canner and adjust processing time for your altitude.
- When the processing time is done, turn off heat; cool canner to zero pressure. After 5 minutes, remove the lid. Let jars cool 10 minutes. Remove jars from canner and place on a towel. Do not retighten bands if loose. Cool for 24 hours. Check seals. Remove rings, wipe jars, and store in a cool dark, and dry pantry.
Canning Fresh Beans
- Shell the lima beans and wash them thoroughly.
- Cover lima beans in a large pot with water and heat to boiling.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to pint jars or 1 teaspoon to quart jars.
- Fill the jars loosely, leaving 1-inch headspace. Run your bubble popper through the jar to remove air bubbles and wipe the rims.
- Place lids on jars and screw ring on finger tight.
- Place the jars carefully into the pressure canner on the canning rack. Leave space in between the jars. Once the jars are all in the canner, adjust the water level per your pressure canner’s instructions. If adding water, use the hot water from the small pot you used to warm your lids.
- Process pint jars of lima beans at 10 pounds of pressure 75 minutes at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft. Process quart jars of dried beans at 10 pounds of pressure 90 minutes at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft. Follow the directions for your pressure canner and adjust processing time for your altitude.
- When the processing time is done, turn off heat; cool canner to zero pressure. After 5 minutes, remove the lid. Let jars cool 10 minutes. Remove jars from canner and place on a towel. Do not retighten bands if loose. Cool for 24 hours. Check seals. Remove rings, wipe jars, and store in a cool dark, and dry pantry.
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Janice
Can you use broth instead of water
Gina
I have used chicken broth before and the lima beans were really good. However, I would be sure you use a broth that does not have fat. For example, homemade stock has a lot of fat, that’s why it is so good. I used box broth. I also have a recipe for chickpeas that I use the broth. Scroll down to flavor variations. I used broth and a few herbs to can them. This would work for limas also. https://intentionalhospitality.com/canning-chickpeas/
Just be sure you follow the exact time for processing.