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1620s Plymouth Succotash
Main Dish / Vegetarian / Plant-based / Vegan
(31 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading...A staple of Native diets throughout the region, succotash was a brothy, long-simmered dish consisting primarily of two critical ingredients: dry corn (hulled by steeping in wood ash lye) and dry beans. Upon this savory background was layered an ever-varying array of fish, shellfish, meat, roots, nuts, fruits, and leaves. English cooks, also from a broth-cooking culture, viewed this important dish as a conceptual relative of their own oat-based pottage and adopted the hulled-corn-and-beans duo without alteration, applying their own flavorings and garnishes. Over the centuries, the ingredients were altered gradually to suit contemporary conditions, making a full transition from the hunted and gathered foods of the Wampanoag to the barnyard and kitchen-garden stuff of the English. This plant-based succotash is Paula Marcoux’s interpretation of a really early English autumnal version.
Total Cook Time: 20 minutes | Serves 5
Source: The Blue Zones American Kitchen, Photo: David McLain
Ingredients
2 pounds cooked, hulled corn (or reconstituted dry whole hominy, frozen hominy, or pozole)
8 ounces dried cranberry beans (or Jacob’s cattle beans or other similar beans), soaked and cooked until just tender
Salt
OPTIONAL ADD-INS:
2 turnips, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 acorn squash or other winter squash, seeded and sliced
Few handfuls of chopped cabbage, collards, or turnip greens
2 leeks or onions, sliced
Few handfuls of chopped lettuce, spinach, endive, chicory, or arugula (or a combination)
Tender strawberry or violet leaves
1 cup ground walnuts, chestnuts, or hazelnuts
Freshly ground black pepper
Few chives or scallions, chopped
Calendula petals
Fresh mint or parsley
Directions
- In a large soup pot, stir together the corn, beans, and salt.
- Add the optional turnips, carrots, squash, cabbage or other winter greens, and leeks or onions, and simmer until they are almost tender, about 10 minutes. (Add oil, if needed.)
- When the above are nearing tenderness, add the leafy greens (lettuce, spinach, endive, chicory, or arugula), strawberry or violet leaves, ground nuts, and pepper, and simmer for a few minutes more.
- Stir in the chives or scallions, calendula petals, and mint or parsley.
- Serve immediately with toasted Plymouth Meslin Bread from Blue Zones American Kitchen.
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