I may have mentioned before that we’ve gotten kind of bad about making sure our meals include some kind of vegetable. Occasionally, I manage to include a veg on the plate. More often than not, I don’t. Here’s one of the ones that actually made it into a meal.
Garlicky Green Beans
Adapted from Kim O’Donnel
BAH Note: KO’D recommends testing your oil by dipping the end of a green bean in it. When the oil is ready it will sizzle.
- 1 pound green beans, ends trimmed, snapped in half
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce
- 1 teaspoon white wine
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil, optional
Combine soy sauce, sugar, chili-garlic sauce, and wine in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a nonstick frying pan set over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add green beans and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add the water, stir, and cover the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the beans are crisp-tender, approximately 5 minutes. Transfer the beans to a plate and drain off any remaining water.
Add the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil to the pan and place over medium high heat. Add the ginger and scallion and cook approximately 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
Return the green beans to the pan, give the soy sauce mixture a stir and add it to the pan. Cook, stirring constantly until the liquid is almost evaporated, approximately 1 minute. Drizzle with sesame oil, if using, and serve immediately.
Bon Appetit Hon 
Sounds tasty, and yet another recipe you probably wrote 4 months ago that works out well as an Easter dish! Bonus.
Jennifer, I’ll give you a peek behind the BAH curtain. According to WordPress, I worked on this post on 11/7/10, 1/10/11, and 2/3/11. Back in November, I probably just typed up the recipe in a draft post. Not sure what I would have done in January. But then in February I would have added the narrative and image and set it in the queue for publishing. So yes, Garlicky Green Beans took a while to get from plate to blog. I won’t even tell you how long the recipe sat in my folder before I actually made it.
Fascinating. Here’s behind the scenes at Bread & Putter: I make food. I take pictures. Or sometimes I make food and forget to take pictures. It’s Sunday and I say I don’t feel like blogging tonight. Then on Monday night I say oh, crap. I should really blog. Then I look at my pictures and see what I have that I haven’t blogged yet and hope I remember the recipe. I’m a blog-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl! 😉
I admire your organizational skills.
And I admire your spontaneity Jennifer.
I’m more of a fly by the seat of my pants blogger myself. Once I save a draft post, it seems to drift off into never-neverland.
You spontaneous bloggers really impress me Beth. I don’t understand it, but I respect it.
seriously, this is the best way to consume green beans.
Lan, I’m also quite fond of pan roasting them on top of the stove in olive oil and salt. They become very french fry like.
What’s not to love about a sizzled green bean? With lots of salty soy? Yum!
Kitch, this recipe is a WINNAH.
This sounds divine–it has some of my favorite flavors (garlic, wine, ginger–YES!).
Jenna, it’s not too late to work this into your Easter dinner plans.
I have been more like Jennifer but I covet being more like Wendi. To that end I am now one week ahead with blog posts. Whoo hoo!
You say garlic…and I say sure! Sounds simple and simply wonderful.
Barbara, my shame is that even with having posts set to publish in advance, my stack of posts that still need to be written gets bigger each week. I am hopeless.
It sounds like these green beans had tons of flavor. I bet the same flavors would work really well with other veggies like zucchini and asparagus.
Jennifer, asparagus would be a great sub. Not sure zucchini would hold up to the cooking so well…but the flavors would be a good match.