Green Beans

My friend, Dan Ruedy, who is a member of the Yankey Farms CSA, was sweet enough to give me some green beans to cook! I doctored them up with the following recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Lb of cleaned green beans

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Juice of half a lemon

1 – 1/2 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp butter

For topping, some toasted pine nuts and slivers of roasted garlic. Makes a side vegetable for about 4 people.

You can use this sauce recipe for any green veggie. In my family, we use it for asparagus, broccoli, and green beans.

1. Steam your green beans for about 10 minutes covered. Check mid-way to see if they are at your preferred softness. Not everyone likes their green beans at the same level of “cooked” so keep checking and pull them out when you feel that they are ready. If you want to be sure that they don’t continue to cook once you remove them from the steamer, pour cold water on them or let them sit in a bowl of water that has ice in it. I’d only recommend doing this if you don’t mind eating your beans at room-temperature. Otherwise, you can reheat them in the microwave if you need to.

2. Add all of your sauce ingredients into a microwave safe dish (with a spout) so that it’s easy to pour. Zap the ingredients in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1  minute.  You do not want your ingredients to bubble over or burn, so keep your eyes and ears on them as they heat.  If you’re anti-microwave, you can heat them slowly in a sauce pan at a low temperature. Mix together, taste. If the sauce is heavy on lemon, add a bit more mustard, if it’s just overall too tangy for you, add another tbsp of butter and/or some more sugar. Use your taste buds to guide you. There are no “right” or “wrong” amounts for this recipe.

3. If you don’t mind room temperature, place them on a serving dish (or you can reheat your green beans in the microwave). Drizzle your warm sauce on the green beans. If you feel that you don’t have enough sauce, a little butter goes a long way. 🙂

Enjoy!