The Old School Southern Vegetable Dish You Can Make From Frozen Ingredients

Southern cuisine is full of vintage side dishes, but few are as easy-to-make and affordable as succotash. While delicious when made with fresh ingredients, it's just as good, and far more convenient to make, from frozen ones as well! All you need is some frozen corn, lima beans, and pearl onions.

If you make succotash from fresh ingredients, you might need a bit of extra moisture to keep your veggies from prematurely browning, whether it's a splash of vinegar or milk from corn cobs. However, melting ice from frozen ingredients keeps a steamy atmosphere under the lid, helping the ingredients thaw while preventing them from sticking to the pan. Simply toss in your corn, beans, and onions with a bit of butter, salt, and pepper, and wait until everything's thawed. Once done, a quick saute to brown the veggies and evaporate excess water gives them a great texture and caramelizes their natural sugars for solid flavor.

Part of what makes succotash great is its efficiency with spare ingredients, so feel free to throw in other veggies you have lying around — like tomatoes, okra, peppers, and even a handful of greens. Bacon, lard, and shredded ham hocks add enough heartiness to transform this side dish into an entree, and tomato acid brightens up the flavor profile of classic bacony succotash into a complex array of tastes. Most succotash recipes have great, if basic, flavors that also allow you to customize them with whatever seasonings you may have lying around.

Succotash's main ingredients of lima beans, corn, and onions are all voracious flavor sponges that pair well with herbal and spicy tastes. Working with frozen ingredients means you'll need to time your seasonings correctly to maximize flavor, but most herbs and spices are still quite easy to work with.

Woody herbs, like rosemary, thyme, and sage, give your succotash a more rustic, powerful flavor, while basil imparts a more delicate aroma that pairs perfectly with acids from tomatoes and vinegar. Succotash is a great way to make use of fresh herbs about to go bad, but only add them when your dish is just about done cooking to avoid making the oils grow bitter. While fresh herbs can crisp up beautifully when fried in fat, you'll need to pay close attention to prevent them from burning. Dried herbs, on the other hand, benefit from the sauna-like effect of your vegetables thawing, so feel free to toss them in early to release all their flavors. 

If you have any hot peppers lying around, you can toss them in while your veggies thaw to soften them up or add them towards the end to maintain a bit of crunch. Spare pickled peppers are especially great with succotash, imparting both heat and acidic brightness while adding a bit of moisture. Always add powdered hot spices, like cayenne, to the frozen vegetables as they'll need time to open up their flavors and mix with the water and fat to create a flavorful sauce.