Fresh Green Beans

As part of my efforts to incorporate more vegetables into my diet, I will sometimes grab a bag of these fresh green beans from the grocery store.  They're really cheap, and they are WAY better than those slimy green beans you get out of a can.  Much, much better.  They're also called string beans or snap beans.  But they're easy to cook, in fact I've even grilled them several times.

Some people like to snap the ends off these by hand – hence the name “snap beans”.  But I’m a much less patient guy.  We had a whole bag of these, and if I was going to take the time to snap each one by hand, it would have taken way too long for my taste.  So I grabbed them in bunches and lined them up on the cutting board.  Then I simply sliced off the ends.  I did it on both sides since I didn’t have every bean going in the same direction.  You really only need to remove the end with the long stem; but this way I knew I’d be covered.

Then in a larger non-stick pan, I got about 2 tbsp of margarine melting over medium heat.  You could certainly use butter here for the maximum flavor.  But I’m trying to keep these beans as healthy as possible.  So I used a Fleischmann’s margarine made with olive oil.  You could also just use olive oil here.  But I think the margarine gives it a little brighter color, and a richer flavor.

I threw in some dried minced onions along with the green beans.  This will add some nice onion flavor, and a little bit of something extra to the beans.  Then I seasoned them lightly with the garlic, onion powder, salt & pepper seasoning I described before. 

Now this is a great dish to practice that cool chefy technique of flipping vegetables in a sauce pan.  Grab the handle, angle it slightly downward away from you (maybe 20-degrees), and give it a quick snap upward and toward yourself.  You are bound to loose a few to spilling while you get this technique down.  But once you figure out how much of a snap-action to give the pan, you’ll have it down pat.  Obviously you could just stir the veggies around with a spoon or a spatula.  That might make your clean-up job a little easier … but it isn’t as much fun.

Let these simmer for maybe 12-14 minutes.  I can’t say the time for certain.  A lot will depend on the heat of your pan.  But I like the green beans to be cooked, but still have some crunch to them. 

They should get a little caramelization on them.  That’s why I prefer this method to just blanching them in some boiling water.