Another way to eat beans.
Many of us take the easy road when it comes to including side dishes with a main meal. This often means boiled, microwaved or steamed vegetables. No added flavour. No added herbs or spices. Just left plain on the side of the plate. But there are other ways to cook vegetables. Other ways that infuse more flavour in. Other ways that give more excitement to the humble vegetable so that it shines in its own right against the main meal. It just needs a little extra effort and maybe a few minutes more time. This can apply to any vegetable but in this instance I’m going to talk about green beans.
I love green beans. They make such a wonderful addition to any meal either as a side dish or added as an ingredient if you’re making curry or a stir-fry. But like most other mums out there, I too get bored with using a vegetable the same way over and over. There has to be other ways to cook it, especially as a side dish. However not many know what else to do with it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love steamed veggies. The natural flavour is enhanced with steaming. Not to mention how you retain all the healthy goodness of a vegetable this way rather than boiling it out. But I’ve seen more and more posts online showing how sautéed vegetables is another way of doing this. The trick is to add just enough butter or oil without drowning the vegetables. After all, vegetables smothered in grease isn’t that appealing.
This is a super simple recipe. The time to make this is not that dissimilar to steaming the beans.
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Sautéed Green Beans
Ingredients
- 250 g green beans, washed
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 5-8 cloves garlic, crushed
- salt
Instructions
- Snap or chop the ends off the beans.
- In a frying pan on medium heat, melt the butter and then add the beans. Toss to cook evenly. Cook for 4 minutes or until they start to become tender. The key is to not overcook them as you want them to retain some crunch.
- Add the garlic and toss to cover the beans evenly. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Season with salt. Serve immediately.