Green Beans

Cooking green beans, you might think, is to simple to warrant a post, but this post is more than simply cooking instructions.

When I was growing up my mother served green beans often.  I didn’t particularly like them.  They were bland, soft and tasteless.  They came from a can.

Green beans are easy to grow in your yard or even in a container, although a single bush would probably only produce a handful of beans.   There are pole beans (i.e. a vine that needs to be supported by a pole of some kind) and bush beans.   Purple green beans are fun because, well . . . they’re purple.  When you cook them, unfortunately, they turn green. 

The typical green beans found in supermarkets, called string beans, are larger and thicker than the French Haricot vert beans.  They also tend to curl, whereas the French beans are elegantly straight.  The French beans do have a slightly different taste, but it’s a subtle difference. I prefer the haricot verts for aesthetic reasons, although both varieties are good to eat.

There are a dozen ways to cook green beans.  Here’s how I prepare them:  I bring some water to a boil and then place the basket with trimmed beans into the pot and immediately cover it.  I reduce the heat to a moderate heat and steam them for about 6 minutes ; until they are al dente.  It’s good to check tenderness with a fork because there is nothing worse than overcooked green beans.  Once they are cooked, I quickly dump out the water and put the beans into the pot.  I salt them with coarse ground salt and grind some black pepper over them and then  pour a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan and shake it all about.  The oil helps the salt and pepper to stick to the beans.

Note:  I trim the stem end of beans, but leave the other end alone.  Those little tails are too cute to cut.