I was mystified. Butter beans — or lima beans, as I grew up calling them in the Midwest — are the most banal of ingredients, a boring bean relegated to the darkest corner of every home cook’s pantry. Why, then, were food influencers drowning them in luxurious sauces, crisping them up as a crouton substitute, and braising them as if they were a fine cut of meat? What the heck was going on?
Beans, broadly speaking, are having a moment. The dry bean market is expected to grow to $8.7 billion by 2028, while the canned bean industry raked in $5.65 billion in 2023 and is projected to be worth a whopping $15.5 billion by 2033, according to the market research firm Fact.MR.
How Butter Beans Went From Gross to Glamorous — https://www.eater.com/24008145/why-are-butter-beans-so-popular
Beans are cheap and nutritious. More people will be incorporating this staple into their diets because they are unable to afford the more expensive foods.
It’s not the vegan/vegetarian/let’s save the world movement. It’s basic economics.
