Chef Juliette
Haricots Blancs à l’Américaine (Lima Beans)
Lima beans, lean bacon, and tomato sauce show the quiet discipline of binding: cook the beans gently, drain them thoroughly, and coat each one until glossy, never soupy.
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Haricots Blancs à la Bretonne
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2153, Haricots Blancs à la Bretonne, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Haricots Blancs à la Bretonne turn tender white beans into a composed side dish, bound in glossy onion, white wine, and tomato sauce, then brightened with chopped parsley at the table.
Side Dishes
French
Comfort Food
Dinner Party
10 min
Active Time
10 min cook•20 min total
Yield4 servings
Haricots Blancs à la Bretonne (white beans bound with Sauce Bretonne) teaches one precise thing: a sauce should cling to the beans, not bury them. Drain them thoroughly, keep the prescribed proportion, and every haricot arrives at the table whole, creamy within, and lacquered with onion, white wine, and tomato.
The classical entry assumed a saucier with finished Sauce Bretonne beside a pan of cooked beans, ready to combine by weight for each order. At home, that becomes one pound of drained beans, 190 milliliters of prepared sauce, and a wide saucepan. The brigade's separate holding pans are scaffolding and can go; the sauce ratio and gentle folding are the dish itself, so they stay exactly where they belong. One cook, one stove, one evening.
At the finish, the beans should glisten red-gold, with only a spoonful of sauce settling beneath them and parsley giving a clean green edge. Drain the cooked beans completely before they meet the sauce. That is the step that decides the dish.
Brittany, especially the country around Paimpol in Côtes-d'Armor, has long made a table staple of pale, thin-skinned haricots that cook to a creamy center while keeping their shape. In the classical repertoire, à la Bretonne became a precise service instruction: cooked beans bound with Sauce Bretonne, whose onion, white wine, and tomato give the dish its savory red-gold coating. The preparation moved easily from the regional pot to bourgeois and grand-kitchen service, where sauce and beans could be prepared separately and joined just before serving.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
cooked white haricot beans
Quantity
2⅔ cups (1 lb / 454 g)
thoroughly drained
prepared Sauce Bretonne
Quantity
¾ cup plus 2 teaspoons (190 ml / about 200 g)
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g)
finely chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cooked white haricot beansthoroughly drained | 2⅔ cups (1 lb / 454 g) |
| prepared Sauce Bretonne | ¾ cup plus 2 teaspoons (190 ml / about 200 g) |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Fine-mesh colander
- •3-quart (2.8 L) wide saucepan
- •Heatproof flexible spatula
- •1½-quart (1.4 L) deep serving bowl or timbale
Instructions
- 1
Drain the beans
Set the cooked beans in a fine-mesh colander for at least 10 minutes, turning them once or twice without crushing them. If they came from a tin, rinse away the packing liquid first. Measure the pound only after draining; water carried into the pan dilutes the Sauce Bretonne and prevents it from coating the beans.
The source proportion is one-third Imperial pint of sauce for each pound of cooked beans. At this scale, that is 190 milliliters of Sauce Bretonne for 454 grams of drained beans. - 2
Warm the sauce
Put the prepared Sauce Bretonne in a wide saucepan and warm it over low heat until it relaxes and barely trembles at the edge. Don't reduce it before the beans arrive, or the book's proportion changes. If chilled sauce remains pasty after warming, loosen it with one teaspoon of hot water at a time, stopping as soon as it flows slowly from the spoon.
- 3
Cohere beans and sauce
Add the drained beans in two batches, folding gently with a flexible spatula until each bean is coated. Hold them at the barest simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, folding only once or twice, until the beans are hot and the sauce clings with just a little gathering on the pan floor. If sauce pools because the beans were damp, lift the beans into a bowl with a slotted spoon, reduce the sauce alone for a minute, then return them. Ça se rattrape. Never boil the beans hard to correct a loose sauce; their skins will split before the sauce is right.
- 4
Dish and finish
Transfer the beans to a warmed timbale or deep serving bowl, using the spatula so they remain whole. Spoon over every trace of Sauce Bretonne left in the pan, then scatter the chopped parsley generously across the surface. Serve at once, while the sauce glistens and the beans still hold their shape. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Cocos de Paimpol are splendid when available, but any small white haricot with a thin skin will serve honestly. Navy beans, Great Northern beans, or small cannellini all work. They must be completely tender before entering the sauce, because this brief finishing step won't soften an undercooked center.
- •Good canned beans are a sensible one-evening answer. Rinse them gently, drain them well, and weigh out exactly 454 grams after draining. Keep any surplus for a salad or soup.
- •Measure the Sauce Bretonne at its finished consistency. The sauce should already be seasoned and able to coat a spoon; this recipe joins two completed components rather than rebuilding the sauce in the bean pan.
- •Serve beside roast lamb, pork, or a plainly roasted bird. For a Breton note at the table, pour a dry cider. The beans need no further garnish or decorative fuss.
Advance Preparation
- •Cook dried beans up to two days ahead and refrigerate them in a little cooking liquid. Drain and weigh them only when you are ready to finish the dish.
- •The Sauce Bretonne may also be prepared up to two days ahead. Keep it separate from the beans and reheat it gently, loosening it with a teaspoon of hot water only if chilling has made it too firm.
- •Once combined, the beans can wait for about 20 minutes over the lowest possible heat. Cover them and avoid repeated stirring, which breaks the skins and turns the sauce starchy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 160g)
Calories
190 calories
Total Fat
4 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
280 mg
Total Carbohydrates
29 g
Dietary Fiber
8 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
10 g
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