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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Flageolets (Haricots Flageolets)
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2155, Flageolets (Haricots Flageolets), from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Haricots flageolets prove that bean cookery is governed by one thing: the barest simmer. Keep the skins whole, the centers creamy, and finish their pale green liquor with butter.
Side Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•2 hr 30 min total
Yield4 servings
Haricots flageolets (pale green flageolet beans) teach the first law of bean cookery: the water must tremble, never gallop. A hard boil tears their fine skins before the centers soften; gentle heat leaves each bean whole, creamy, and faintly sweet. This is a quiet dish, but quiet dishes expose the cook.
The original entry assumed fresh beans when the season allowed, preserved or dried beans behind them, and a cook who already knew the haricot method. It gave neither a brigade quantity nor a separate sauce to reproduce. For the home table I use 225 grams of dried flageolets, quick-soaked and cooked in one saucepan. Large holding pots are scaffolding and can go; the aromatic simmer, patient testing, and butter finish are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When they're ready, the beans will be pale green-ivory, tender without collapsing, and glazed with their own reduced liquor and real butter. Don't judge them by the clock. Taste the center, because keeping that simmer bare and cooking away every trace of chalkiness is the step that matters most.
Haricots flageolets belong to the market gardens of Île-de-France, especially the country around Arpajon and Brétigny-sur-Orge south of Paris, where growers pulled the plants before full maturity and dried the pale beans away from harsh light. The flageolet is not a separate species so much as a common bean selected and harvested young, which explains both its green cast and finer texture. From those gardens it moved to bourgeois and bistro tables as the customary companion to gigot d'agneau, while classical kitchens sieved it into Purée Musard (sieved flageolet purée) for mutton and for thickening purée of haricots verts.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried flageolet beans
Quantity
1¼ cups (300 ml / 225 g)
picked over and rinsed
water
Quantity
11 cups (2.6 L / 2.6 kg), divided, plus more as needed
small yellow onion
Quantity
1
peeled and halved
small carrot
Quantity
1
halved lengthwise
bouquet garni (2 parsley stems, 1 thyme sprig, and 1 bay leaf)
Quantity
1
fine sea salt
Quantity
1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g)
divided
cold unsalted butter
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 42 g)
cut into small cubes
ground white pepper
Quantity
¼ teaspoon (1 ml / 0.5 g)
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g)
finely chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried flageolet beanspicked over and rinsed | 1¼ cups (300 ml / 225 g) |
| water | 11 cups (2.6 L / 2.6 kg), divided, plus more as needed |
| small yellow onionpeeled and halved | 1 |
| small carrothalved lengthwise | 1 |
| bouquet garni (2 parsley stems, 1 thyme sprig, and 1 bay leaf) | 1 |
| fine sea saltdivided | 1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g) |
| cold unsalted buttercut into small cubes | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 42 g) |
| ground white pepper | ¼ teaspoon (1 ml / 0.5 g) |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •3-quart heavy saucepan with lid
- •2-quart heatproof bowl
- •Slotted spoon
- •Small whisk
Instructions
- 1
Quick-soak the beans
Bring 6 cups of the water to a boil in the saucepan. Put the rinsed flageolets in a heatproof bowl, pour the water over them, cover, and leave them for 1 hour. Drain and rinse. This quick soak replaces the overnight wait, not the cooking itself; it changes the schedule so the dish fits one evening without stripping away the patient simmer that defines it.
If you have time, cover the beans generously with cold water and soak them overnight instead. Either method works, but the overnight soak gives the most even texture. - 2
Start the aromatic simmer
Return the drained beans to the saucepan with the remaining 5 cups water, the onion, carrot, bouquet garni, and 1 teaspoon of the salt. The water should stand about 2 inches above the beans; add a little more if your pot is broad. Bring it slowly toward a simmer over medium heat, skim off the pale foam, then lower the heat at the first small bubbles.
- 3
Hold a bare tremble
Set the lid slightly ajar and cook for 50 to 75 minutes, keeping only an occasional bubble at the surface. Add freshly boiled water whenever needed to keep the beans covered by about 1 inch, and rock the pot instead of stirring. If the water boils hard and a few skins split, take the pan off the heat for 2 minutes and resume at the lowest setting. Ça se rattrape: don't stir again, and later press the damaged beans into the finishing liquor where they'll thicken it rather than announce the accident.
- 4
Judge the centers
Begin tasting after 50 minutes. A finished flageolet yields easily under the tooth and is creamy all the way through, with no dry or chalky speck at its center. If the beans remain firm after 75 minutes, they're older, not ruined; add hot water and continue in 10-minute intervals. Remove the onion, carrot, and bouquet garni, then lift the tender beans into a warm bowl with a slotted spoon. Reserve at least 1 cup of their cooking liquor.
- 5
Monter au beurre
Pour ½ cup of the reserved liquor into the emptied saucepan and reduce it briskly to about ¼ cup, until it feels lightly silky rather than watery. Take the pan off the heat and monter au beurre (finish with cold butter), whisking in the butter a few cubes at a time until the liquor turns glossy. Fold in the beans, white pepper, and up to the remaining ½ teaspoon salt, rolling the pan gently to coat them. If the finish looks oily, lift out the beans and whisk 1 tablespoon cool cooking liquor into the pan until the emulsion comes back, then return them. Ça se rattrape.
- 6
Season and serve
Fold in the chopped parsley and taste once more. The beans should be seasoned enough to stand beside roast lamb, but still taste unmistakably of themselves. Spoon them into a warm serving bowl with the buttered liquor gathered around them, not drained away. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Fresh flageolets are the first choice when you find them. Use 3 cups (720 ml / 450 g) shelled fresh beans, omit the soaking step, and begin tasting after 20 minutes; their flavor is greener and their skins particularly delicate.
- •Out of season, dried beans are the honest classical pantry answer. Two cans provide about 3 cups (720 ml / 510 g) drained preserved flageolets; rinse them, warm them for 12 to 15 minutes with the aromatics in 2 cups (480 ml / 480 g) water, then finish with butter as written.
- •For Purée Musard, pass the hot cooked beans through a food mill or fine sieve, loosen them with hot cooking liquor, and finish with butter. A blender cuts the skins too aggressively and can make the purée gluey. Purée Musard traditionally accompanies mutton and thickens purée of haricots verts without muffling its green-bean flavor.
- •Flageolets are the settled companion to gigot d'agneau, but they're equally useful beside roast chicken or a simple pork chop. Let the roast choose the wine; the beans require no separate performance.
Advance Preparation
- •The beans may be soaked overnight in cold water instead of quick-soaked. Drain and rinse them before cooking.
- •Cook the beans up to 2 days ahead and refrigerate them submerged in their cooking liquor. Reheat gently, then reduce the liquor and add the butter only when you're ready to serve.
- •Cooked flageolets freeze well in their liquor for up to 2 months. Thaw them in the cold and warm them at a bare simmer so their skins remain whole.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 150g)
Calories
270 calories
Total Fat
9 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
25 mg
Sodium
420 mg
Total Carbohydrates
36 g
Dietary Fiber
8 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
13 g
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