Green beans...what's your favorite fixer-upper?
String beans show-up on many dinner tables just because "we need a green vegetable that most people will eat". BORING. How do you entice family & friends to eat this vegetable? Mushrooms, nuts, bits of pork? I like a cold green bean salad that contains pecans & blue cheese. Let's talk string beans!
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32 Comments:
Other than fresh of course, I found a frozen green bean that I just love. It's Hanover petite whole green beans. Normally, I just steam for a few minutes and add butter, s&p. Additional additives can include slivered toasted almonds, slivered toasted garlic, shallots, mushrooms and even raisins if I want a child to try them. They are great in soups, stews and casseroles, including the infamous one with mushroom soup and I love it! If I can't find fresh or the Hanover petite, I skip it altogether. Don't care for any other frozen green bean and don't even want to think about canned. Yuk.
@JEP........I don't know if I'd like them in a cold salad. Might have to give that a try. Blue cheese makes anything taste great!
PerkyMac at 9:47AM on 02/18/08
shallots, garlic and mushrooms in a skillet. string bean salad is popular around here steam them then season with vinaigrette and seasoning and serve cold. I don't season veggies with pork except the Adam posted recipe with brussels sprouts which was fabulous and would probably work real well on string beans too.
I do not use the greenbean casserole recipe for green beans instead I use yellow squash.
JerzeeTomato at 9:51AM on 02/18/08
Nigella Lawson's FEAST has a green bean dish with lemon that's wonderful.
lemons at 9:55AM on 02/18/08
My favorite way is to roast them. Oven at 400o, I toss them with olive oil and salt, lay them and a few peeled, halved cloves of garlic, into a pan that's been pre-heating in the oven, on the top rack and roast for about 1/2 hour, tossing occasionally. They're good hot, they're good room temp, they're good cold out of the fridge. Also The Green Beans with Yellow Peppers, Tomatoes, and Chili Pepper recipe out of Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, which is just wonderful.
chisai at 9:56AM on 02/18/08
I'm with chisai -- roasting is the way to go! I toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper and a little lemon juice and roast away. They're delicious!
CookiePie at 10:03AM on 02/18/08
Put trimmed and washed green beans in a pot. Cover with water. Add a piece of smoked turkey. Bring to a boil then turn down the heat an simmer for 45 minutes. Perfection. No measuring.
Renee at 10:09AM on 02/18/08
When I was a kid, my grandmother would stir fry them into submission with a little lemon, red pepper, and LOTS of garlic. Ended up with a lovely lovely tender texture...I'm one of those people whose teeth ache at the thought of still in between crisp-rubbery string beans, ew.
They should make a crunch or fall off your fork.
jazzinx at 10:53AM on 02/18/08
@Renee.........I always believed that a green bean cooked to anything other than still slightly crispy was food for the disposal. Then I went to visit a relative in NC. She cooked them.... seemed like all day, with ham hocks I think? I wondered how I would get them down without gagging and was downright shocked at how delicious they were.
PerkyMac at 11:33AM on 02/18/08
Snap them into short pieces (which makes it much easier to make sure they all cook evenly), and sauté them in a teaspoon of olive oil or drippings until just hot (1-3 minutes); I season with salt and whatever strikes me as working with the rest of the meal.
I like prefer peas, though.
mongoose at 11:48AM on 02/18/08
cooked for a long time with tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, and sugar.
or quickly steamed and tossed with crushed toasted walnuts and some loriva walnut oil.
but i'm going to try roasting them, since i love roasting asparagus.
cybercita at 11:55AM on 02/18/08
Green bean must be simple, steamed, then patted with garlic butter and a little sea salt!
Lilartist at 12:22PM on 02/18/08
Sauteed with onions and bacon and maybe some garlic, the beans kept crisp, never limp. I even top them off with some sliced almonds, too.
jmoilanen at 12:26PM on 02/18/08
There are not many foods that can't be improved and freshened by the additions of bacon and lemon.
Wow, if that didn't come out of my mouth, I would have blamed Confucius.
;-)
PerkyMac at 12:38PM on 02/18/08
I love green beans almondine---something about the taste of almonds and amaretto and green beans is just so delicious!
I also like to boil new red potatoes side-by-side with fresh green beans, then mash the potatoes just a little bit. Combine them with the green beans and stir in some butter and it is heaven.
lo82070 at 2:14PM on 02/18/08
A tropical take on almondine - lime juice (instead of lemon) and macadamia nuts instead of almonds.
charm city cupcake at 2:34PM on 02/18/08
The only way I will eat green beans is in a salad with roasted red potatoes, kalamata olives, red onions and rosemary-garlic vinaigrette (made with red wine vinegar). But in general, I just don't like them. Hubby loves it when I make green beans with a teriyaki-like sauce (a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, some sesame oil, etc), red onions, red bell peppers and cashew nuts. It looks very pretty, and I love the sauce...but not so much the green beans:-).
brooke29 at 2:42PM on 02/18/08
Mmm...I'd like to try them roasted as well as Charm's recipe.
Call me picky, but I select them bean by bean in the market...none of those pre-bagged ones! Of course, the middle of the Midwest's winter is certainly not an ideal time for the best tasting fresh ones:(
Anyone tried them with dips...more people may eat them this way, especially kids?
JEP at 3:30PM on 02/18/08
Turkish style - braised with white vinegar, parsley or mint, garlic, tomatoes, onions, s&p, crushed red pepper flakes, a possible touch of sugar, and scads and scads of olive oil.
tacroy80 at 3:54PM on 02/18/08
Chinese stir fried green beans...in a hot wok with a little oil, stir fry a little ground pork and finely minced za cai (Chinese salted and preserved vegetable) until both are fragrant and golden (theres a name for this technique "bao xiang"...to fry on hight heat in oil until fragrant. Its used as the base for a lot of stir fried dishes).
Then just add blanched green beans and stir fry until piping hot and the beans are cooked through. Season with salt to taste (although the za cai is very salty already, so not too much).
Serve!
fuuchan at 4:20PM on 02/18/08
@JEP........haven't tried with dip, but they'd be great! I can almost taste them with hummus.
Has anyone tried them deep fried, just as is or with any type of coating? I've heard they're delicious. If they're not even coated with flour, how much oil could they absorb?
PerkyMac at 4:47PM on 02/18/08
Love green beans. Cold green bean salad with sliced hard-boiled egg, red onion, horseradish sour creme, and plenty of crumbled bacon . . . that's my favorite fix.
Susquehanna at 4:58PM on 02/18/08
Green bean tempura is delicious as far as deep frying goes, PerkyMac.
fuuchan at 5:00PM on 02/18/08
I like blanched green beans tossed with minced garlic and chopped parsley, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
And they are very good in tempura.
thebasilqueen at 5:18PM on 02/18/08
Brown sugar and melted butter. As much as possible of both without actually stepping into the dessert lane (or really, why stop yourself?). I toss the beans with these ingredients, throw them in the oven for half an hour or so, and pure bliss!
xaire at 5:47PM on 02/18/08
string beans cooked with salt pork! Call my cardiologist-Yum!
PlanetChaos at 6:37PM on 02/18/08
Sauteed onions and a pinch of garlic with the green beans, and a little bit of thyme and butter on top. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Oh, and xaire's recipe sounds awesome, too! If brown sugar and butter won't get someone to eat green beans, nothing will! :-)
sheeats at 6:41PM on 02/18/08
Me too likes xaire's recipe---I mean brown sugar & butter baked into goodness:)
Has anyone ever grown their own green beans? Maybe even canned them?
JEP at 6:56PM on 02/18/08
Oh my, does xaire's recipe sound amazing! Dinner addition this weekend for sure.
My family likes the really cooked down approach. I sautee green beans (I'm, with the Hanover mini's for this dish) in butter and extra virgin olive oil,
salt and pepper with lots of oregano. Cover and let go. Add grated pecorino
romano cheese and transfer to casserole dish. Cover with more cheese and pop under the broiler.
My kids love this dish. Enjoy.
donnie at 7:28PM on 02/18/08
Bacon makes everything taste better! My grandmother also cooked her beans all day long with bacon, onion, and secret ingredient...Accent...yes...MSG! I know it's horrible for you, but it serioulsy makes the beans insanely good!
jcrisco at 8:19PM on 02/18/08
I know it's been said a million times, but roasted green beans with lemon and toasted almonds can't be beat.
Christina at 8:23PM on 02/18/08
I like them roasted or broiled with minced garlic, strips of pepper or grape tomatoes, and then finished with lemon zest and lemon juice. Delicious hot out of the oven or at room temperature. I sometimes cook asparagus the same way.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/1226531
The other way I like them is smothered with new potatoes, from a recipe in one of Emeril's cookbooks. They can cook for up to an hour barely attended and still come out delicious. Makes a perfect accompaniment to roasted chicken on a Sunday or even a weeknight with the gravy, potatoes, and vegetable.
Otabenga at 5:32PM on 02/19/08
We usually just serve them plain or with some sliced almonds...aren't they good the way they are?!
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 4:33PM on 02/22/08