Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
This is a southern vegetable specialty which I was first exposed to while cooking at Brennan’s of Houston. For whatever reason, it was not a major dish in my extended family. Perhaps it’s not as common in Texas. However, it would very much appeal to the Houstonion restaurant-goer of today, being comprised of a medley of familiar garden vegetables sauteed and then simmered in cream.
Some modern recipes for succotash call for using only butter (in copious amounts) or possibly making a butter sauce around the succotash. This can be lovely but especially the butter sauce method does not make for especially nice leftovers. Regular creamy succotash can be warmed up and served left-over, or perhaps incorporated into something like cornbread custard.
There is no particular reason to make this ahead of time, but as noted above, it can be cooled, refrigerated for a few days, and then reheated. It may be garnished with crumbled bacon, if bacon was rendered for cooking fat, or lardons of bacon may be left in the mixture from the beginning, as you like.
Makes enough for 4-6 people, roughly a litre.
Equipment:
• large skillet
• heatproof spatula or wooden spoon
Ingredients:
4 ears corn on the cob ~3 cups
2 cup green beans cut to 1” lengths; or baby lima or field peas
1 cup okra sliced
1 cup onion diced
1 cup grape tomatoes halved
1⁄4 cup parsley chiffonnade
4 slices bacon optional; render for cooking fat
1/4 cup heavy cream optional
Procedure:
1. If rendering bacon, start that first, early. Use the cooking time to cut all the vegetables.
2. If using fresh green beans, they need the most time to cook, so clean and cut them first and get them into the skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Slice the kernels off the corncobs, and add them to the green beans.
4. Wash and slice the okra and add it.
5. Dice and add the onion.
6. While things are cooking, get parsley and tomatoes cut.
7. Once everything is starting to soften and perhaps onion or corn are starting to show a tiny bit of color in the pan, add the cream, and any other optional adjuncts such as cheese.
8. Allow the cream to thicken around the vegetables some, possibly up to 5 more minutes of cooking.
9. Once the cream around them has come to an attractive consistency, serve and enjoy.
10. Optionally garnish with crumbled bacon if you’re using some and it wasn’t left in the mixture from the beginning as lardons.
11. Allow any remaining succotash to cool completely, then store in a tightly-lidded container in the fridge for up to a week.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
This is a southern vegetable specialty which I was first exposed to while cooking at Brennan’s of Houston. For whatever reason, it was not a major dish in my extended family. Perhaps it’s not as common in Texas. However, it would very much appeal to the Houstonion restaurant-goer of today, being comprised of a medley of familiar garden vegetables sauteed and then simmered in cream.
Some modern recipes for succotash call for using only butter (in copious amounts) or possibly making a butter sauce around the succotash. This can be lovely but especially the butter sauce method does not make for especially nice leftovers. Regular creamy succotash can be warmed up and served left-over, or perhaps incorporated into something like cornbread custard.
There is no particular reason to make this ahead of time, but as noted above, it can be cooled, refrigerated for a few days, and then reheated. It may be garnished with crumbled bacon, if bacon was rendered for cooking fat, or lardons of bacon may be left in the mixture from the beginning, as you like.
Makes enough for 4-6 people, roughly a litre.
Equipment:
• large skillet
• heatproof spatula or wooden spoon
Ingredients:
4 ears corn on the cob ~3 cups
2 cup green beans cut to 1” lengths; or baby lima or field peas
1 cup okra sliced
1 cup onion diced
1 cup grape tomatoes halved
1⁄4 cup parsley chiffonnade
4 slices bacon optional; render for cooking fat
1/4 cup heavy cream optional
Procedure:
1. If rendering bacon, start that first, early. Use the cooking time to cut all the vegetables.
2. If using fresh green beans, they need the most time to cook, so clean and cut them first and get them into the skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Slice the kernels off the corncobs, and add them to the green beans.
4. Wash and slice the okra and add it.
5. Dice and add the onion.
6. While things are cooking, get parsley and tomatoes cut.
7. Once everything is starting to soften and perhaps onion or corn are starting to show a tiny bit of color in the pan, add the cream, and any other optional adjuncts such as cheese.
8. Allow the cream to thicken around the vegetables some, possibly up to 5 more minutes of cooking.
9. Once the cream around them has come to an attractive consistency, serve and enjoy.
10. Optionally garnish with crumbled bacon if you’re using some and it wasn’t left in the mixture from the beginning as lardons.
11. Allow any remaining succotash to cool completely, then store in a tightly-lidded container in the fridge for up to a week.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
