I discovered an item at the grocery store last week that I'll be buying again often. Pre-cleaned and ready to eat fresh green beans. Easy-peasy!
Here's the empty bag (forgot to take photo and had to fish it out of the trash. You're welcome!) :)
These were ready to just dump in the pot, however if you like your beans cut, you could break them or cut them to the size you like. I do prefer cut green beans but was hungry and just dumped them in whole.
Then
When I was growing up in Kentucky, we grew green beans in our garden. I hated picking, stringing and breaking those things!! But I sure did love eating them. Here's the way we would have made them when I was a kid...
Fry a couple of slices of bacon, leaving the grease and bacon in the pot. Or, sometimes, rather than frying fresh bacon, we would just put a tablespoon or so of bacon grease in the pot (we kept a coffee cup of the grease just for cooking!).
Add some salt. And my mom always added a bit (maybe a teaspoonful) of sugar to every vegetable we cooked.
Add fresh beans and some water, cover and cook until they're very soft. We'd sometimes simmer them for hours. Just be sure the water doesn't cook off! I once scorched them so badly I had to throw the pot out. Not good!
Now
Once I was an adult, I switched over to canned green beans (which were quicker when I had young kids and needed to make dinner). Which also meant I didn't take the time to fry bacon. That meant draining the can, putting the beans in a pan and adding a little canola oil to help flavor them. However, on occasion, I would make fresh beans--like yesterday.
So I tossed those fresh beans in the pot, added some canola oil (about 1-2 TBS because it was a large bag), and then some seasoning salt. When I tasted them later, they needed a little more salt, so I added kosher salt flakes. (If you make canned beans, do NOT add salt.)
I let them cook for about an hour. They needed a little longer to be the southern beans I'm used to (no crunchy beans for us!), but it was past lunchtime already.
They turned out yummy! The Belle had a nice lunch remembering the days of growing up (minus the bacon grease). :)
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You forgot the cheese! My favorite way to have fresh beans is to cook them a bit soft, throw in some bacon, and top with a few slices of cheese and let the cheese melt by putting the lid on the pot so the steam locks in moisture. When we buy canned beans I actually get the no salt added. My husband has to watch his salt so we buy without salt when we can.
ReplyDeleteI have never EVER had cheese on green beans!! How did I not think of that? I think I've eaten cheese on every other food known to humankind. :) Thanks for the suggestion, Katie!
DeleteCheese on green beans? I'm not sure I can wrap my brain around that, Katie.
DeleteMissy, your "then" part reminded me of the very first post I wrote for the old Healthy Writer blog. It was something like "These are not your mother's green beans," though in my case it was green beans with cream of mushroom soup and those canned onion ring crisps. I HATED it.
ReplyDeleteRecently I started buying the thin French green beans (haricots vert) at Whole Foods. But all I do is stick them in the microwave for about 4 minutes.
Mary Cate, I grew up on that casserole at holidays and LOVED it! And I still make it for my family. :) I love those fried onions--on salads and have even been known to eat a few of them plain when I want a crunchy, salty snack. :)
DeleteTo be fair, it was likely the cream of mushroom soup I hated. I can't imagine hating the onion ring things.
DeleteMary Cate, Guy Fieri has a recipe for green bean casserole that uses fresh green beans and fresh mushroom, even fries his own shallots, though I still used the French's French Fried Onions because they're easier. At any rate, that's a green bean casserole you might actually enjoy. It's definitely not your mama's green bean casserole.
DeleteMindy, i want to try that! I think I saw him make that on his show.
DeleteI love my green beans cooked slightly, then sauteed with a bit of bacon grease (maybe a teaspoon), some cooked, diced bacon, and slivered almonds until the beans are done. We like ours with some firmness to them, so it doesn't take long.
ReplyDeleteYour recipe for the beans from your childhood is definitely southern! I was an adult before I ate them that way...but I do love them. :-)
Jan, almonds sound good as an addition! I should say that a tablespoon of bacon grease was for a big pot. :)
DeleteMissy, once I started roasting my green beans, I never went back to the stove top. The flavors are so much better and tossed with a little bit of chopped bacon just takes it over the top.
ReplyDeleteI remember going to one of my mom's friends' house when I was little and picking green beans. And snapping them. Don't recall the stringing part, but I've slept since then.
I'm beginning to think Mindy can find a way to add bacon to just about anything. :) Bacon cupcakes, anyone?
DeleteMary Cate, that would just be gross. I did try chocolate covered bacon once. Love 'em both, just not together.
DeleteI actually had planned to roast this bag of beans just to try it! I’m glad to hear it’s yummy. I’ll do that next time.
DeleteI grew up in East Tennessee. We always planted and canned hundreds of quarts of White Half Runner green beans. Oh those were the best! My mom would cook them with potatoes, and that was the best meal ever for me. Now I'm in West Texas, and no one out here grows them. I've told my husband next year, I'm ordering seed and growing them. But I have to say Mindy is right...roasted green beans are the BOMB!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post Missy. You've brought not only a great recipe but a great memory as well :))
Pat, I’ve always loved beans cooked with potatoes! Did y’all use bacon grease? In Tennessee, I bet you did! :)
DeleteHaha! Oh yes! Lots of it :)
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