summer succotash

aka the most perfect late summer side dish

Leaving a working farm for longer than 24 hours is no small feat.

There are vegetables to be irrigated, tended to, and harvested; chickens to be fed, watered and eggs collected; veggie pick-ups to be coordinated, etc etc. Before moving to our farm, for the previous 10 years I’d only ever lived in apartments that were 900 square feet (or less), with no plants or animals or small humans to keep alive in my absence. Ohhh yes, those were the youthful, carefree days when I could leave for days (or weeks!) at a time, and my only obligation was remembering to lock the door on my way out.

Those days are long gone for me (along with my ability to stay out past 8pm, *unless* it’s for a Taylor Swift concert…), but today I’m actually grateful to have cultivated a life that is full and abundant and chaotic and, frankly, hard to leave.

This is all to say that Matthew and I have in fact managed to get off the farm for a whole 72 hours (!), mostly thanks to wonderful friends and neighbors managing the farm chores, and my to wonderful in laws who are taking care of our very energetic toddler and our sweet fluffy pup while we escape the August heat/humidity for cooler breezes up in New England this weekend.

In full transparency, I’m dashing this off from 30,000 feet in the air (and descending to our destination shortly!), so I’ll keep this part short and sweet.. but make sure to keep reading to get this week’s new recipe for summer succotash.

Succotash! Fun to say, fun to cook, fun to eat – especially in late summer, when the tomatoes and corn and okra and beans (and all the things) are abundant in backyard gardens and on farmers’ market tables.

A quick bit of culinary history: Succotash is a centuries-old dish that was a staple among Native American tribes based in/around the land that we now know as New England (and the word succotash comes from the the Narragansett Indian word “msickquatash,” which translates to “boiled corn kernels”).

Succotash has evolved quite a bit since then, and today it’s associated more with southern cooking, with countless riffs and regional variations. My take on succotash is fairly traditional – you start by frying up some bacon in a big skillet, then cook the rest of the veggies (onions, beans, fresh corn, okra, and tomatoes) in the sumptuous, salty bacon fat. It all comes together super quickly and makes a hearty summer side dish, pairing well with pork (especially sausage), grilled shrimp, and fried chicken.

A few quick ingredient notes:

• You can use fresh or frozen lima beans (which is more traditional) OR fresh/frozen edamame for this recipe (I personally prefer the latter, as I find edamame holds its vibrant green color better + the texture is nicer). And don’t feel bad about reaching for the frozen stuff! That’s what I typically use, and you can’t go wrong either way.

• If you can’t find (or, *gasp*, if you don’t like) okra, then you can omit that ingredient from the recipe, and just substitute with a bit more corn, beans, or tomatoes.

• To make this recipe vegetarian/vegan, just skip the bacon and saute all the veggies in olive oil, and omit the butter at the end of the recipe.

…keep reading to get cookin, good lookins!

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Summer Succotash

Serves 4-6