Oriental lima bean balls

I’ve been experimenting with meatless recipes lately, not to go vegetarian, but to come up with new ways to serve vegetables as appetizers, side dishes or snacks. Some experiments did not turn out well; others did like this lima bean balls. Fresh lima beans (patani, in Filipino) were boiled until almost but not quite mushy, mashed with a fork, seasoned and mixed with a beaten egg, formed into balls and deep-fried.

Oriental lima bean balls

I’m guessing other varieties of beans can be used, even canned beans which won’t require boiling, and the “theme” can vary as well. These are “Oriental” because I used oyster and hoisin sauces to flavor the bean balls. Next time, I’ll try “Mexican” by adding chopped mild chilis and cilantro. Or, I can mix in some chopped sun dried tomatoes and sweet basil leaves, place a cube of cheese right at the center of the bean balls so that the cheese softens and turns gooey during deep frying, and I can have Italian-inspired lima beans balls. The possibilities are endless and just thinking about them excites me.

To make 10 to 12 beans balls, you will need:

about 200 grams of fresh lima beans
salt
pepper
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsps. of oyster sauce
2 tbsps. of hoisin sauce
3 to 4 c. of cooking oil for deep frying

Fresh lima beans

Boil the beans until tender, about 20 minutes. Dried and mature beans will take longer to cook so treat the “20 minutes” as a mere guideline. Put simply, the beans should be tender enough to mash but not mushy because you really want some texture of the beans to remain.

Drain the beans and mash with a fork (or a vegetable masher if you’ve got one). Season lightly with salt and pepper. Add the hoisin and oyster sauces and pour in the beaten egg. Mix well. Form into two-inch balls.

Heat the cooking oil in a wok or frying pan. Fry the bean balls in batches of four to six until golden brown and crisp on the outside. Drain on paper towels. Serve with more hoisin sauce on the side.

May 8, 2009  Print This Post   
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Comments

8 Responses to “Oriental lima bean balls”
  1. sue fabia says:
    May 8, 2009 at 3:48 pm

    hi connie,

    did you peel the lima beans (either before boiling or after, if at all)?

    thank you!

    Reply
  2. Charlie says:
    May 9, 2009 at 3:05 am

    Hello! This recipe reminds me of Falafel -with chickpeas. Its my favorite vegetarian snack served with cucumber sauce to balance the heat of the spices from the falafel. Your recipe is one way to enjoy a fried food thats not too sinful. Good protein source at that.
    Your site is very informative and always a learning experience with every visit.
    Thank you very much.
    Charlie_gurl
    SFO

    Reply
  3. Jack Congson says:
    May 9, 2009 at 4:23 am

    This is very similar to an old Middle Eastern recipe for Falafel which uses broad beans and chickpeas, coriander, cumin, parsley, garlic, onion and chili powder. The dried broad beans are soaked in water for 2 days and the chickpeas for 12 hrs(not boiled). Both are skinned and then processed in the food processor with everything else until smooth and then made into “bola bola” and deep fried. I cook this often.

    Reply
  4. Eternal Wanderer says:
    May 10, 2009 at 2:04 pm

    Picked up the idea, but used 2 canned white beans lying idle in the pantry and decided to make them into patties instead. I used cumin, paprika, and chili powder for that mexican twist.

    When I added the egg though, I noticed that the mixture was a bit too soggy. I tried frying a patty, and I was right. It didn’t hold its shape. Good thing I still had leftover breadcrumbs in the ref, and it helped stablize the mixture.

    Thanks for the idea of how to use the the beans instead of the usual chili con carne hehehe

    Reply
  5. auee says:
    May 27, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    Very easy to do and the steps are easy to remember :-)
    Tamang tama I have a bag of dried beans at home.

    Reply
  6. sonia says:
    June 29, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    Hi!

    May I ask where you bought the lima beans? It seems to be a bit difficult to find fresh patani.

    Thanks.

    Reply
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