Spicy Slivered Green Beans with Lime and Cilantro
Serves 21 large handful of young green beans (about 1/3lb), ends trimmed
Olive Oil
3/4 t. red pepper flakes
1/2 T. minced cilantro
juice from 1/2 a limeStack the green beans so they are all facing the same direction. Slice the green beans into roughly 1/2 inch slices.
Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add green beans and saute for about 1 minute. Mix in red pepper flakes. Cover skillet with a tight fitting lid or plate, and cook for an additional 1 minute or so, until beans are bright green. Remove lid and mix in cilantro and lime juice. At this point, the beans will be warm but still crisp. If you like your beans a little softer, cook an additional 1-3 minutes; otherwise, serve right away. Enjoy!
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This recipe celebrates the art of simple cooking — five ingredients plus a little chopping is all it takes to turn what some might consider a ho-hum vegetable into something unique and delicious.
Green beans a ho-hum vegetable? I can sense your indignation already…. Let me explain: green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, lettuce — these are the vegetables I remember growing up with… Beets, chard, sorrel, fava beans, squash, nettles, fennel, bok choy, peppers, artichokes, dandelion, avocados — these I didn’t discover until much later in life, basically until I got out on my own and had to do my own grocery shopping. The vegetables that fall into the first category — those that I grew up with — don’t make appearances on my table as often as one might expect; I have come to appreciate the fact that the vegetable kingdom is huge and has so much to offer that I’ve never tasted, and I gravitate towards tastes that are somewhat new to me.
Usually when green beans were served in my home growing up, they were accompanied by crumbled bacon, roquefort, and chopped toasted almonds (SUPER DELICIOUS!), but tonight I wanted something lighter with a bit of a kick. Alongside the green beans I served roasted poblano peppers stuffed with a mixture of slow braised pork, rice, and diced peaches and apricots (fruit and pork is always a lovely combination). Even though it’s only late May, all of the produce for tonight’s dinner — green beans, cilantro, limes, poblano peppers, peaches, and apricots — was purchased at my local farmer’s market. I oddly feel out-of-season eating spicy peppers these days, but perhaps the long Memorial Day weekend will allow me to welcome summer, along with its signature vegetable offerings.
Anyhow, I do hope you give this a try– it literally come together in less than 10 minutes, and is a unique and usual way to serve green beans, both because of the cut and flavor of the beans. In the future I might make a version using adobo sauce and minced garlic, or alternatively with preserved lemon and dill (<– this one’s totally different, I know)… If you have other suggestions for green beans, I’d love to hear them (especially since Steven declared green beans ‘his favorite vegetables’ tonight while we were eating dinner, and because my repertoire could use some expansion at this point…) I also think this would be nice with okra (another favorite vegetable around here), once it’s in season.
Still Hungry? Try one of these:
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This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Cilantro / Coriander, Green Beans, Honorable Herbs, Veritable Vegetables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I will definitely be trying this! Cilantro is so versatile - I may add a bit more because I love it so much :)
This looks delicious. The only ingredient I don’t produce is the lime. I can certainly make a 100 mile diet exemption for a lime.
jen,
Give me any spicy dish and I will finish them all. Green bean with preserve lemon sound so delice! I made my own preserve lemon (haven’t posted yet!). Got the recipe from David Lebovitz. If you come visit me, I’ll make green bean with toasted coconut and spicy balinese sambal (shallots, garlic, chilli, lemongrass and kaffir lime both the leaves and the fruit as well)
Ooh, I’ll totally try this. I’ve got beans at the base of their poles right now, so maybe once they’re producing I can make this with some of the cilantro that hopefully isn’t bolting nearby.
Thanks for the recipe!
Um, any chance we can get the recipe for the pork and poblanos? That sounds really good and we do love the pork around here.
magpie - I absolutely love cilantro, and I tend to use a lot of it when the weather is warm… the only combination I’ve found that I didn’t really like was chard + cilantro… reminiscent of sweaty socks…
Robin - Thanks! If you didn’t want to use lime, I bet you could use a splash of rice vinegar and it would also be nice
elra - the dish you described sounds ridiculously delicious! My old roommate used to have a kaffir lime tree and he would use the leaves in all sorts of things, but now I have no idea where to find them fresh… any ideas?
finnyknits - for the pork & poblanos, I used the leftovers from this recipe: http://tinyurl.com/4u7czh
I made 1/3 of the recipe, shredded the pork instead of leaving it in cubes, and also didn’t bother with the cornstarch thickener. I mixed the pork with leftover brown rice, and added 1 chopped peach and 1 chopped apricot for a little fruity flavor. Then I stuffed the mixture into roasted poblano peppers and warmed it in a low over for about 15 minutes. To roast the peppers, coat the peppers with a little oil, then broil until the skin is blistered all over. Then, put peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Wait 15-20 minutes, peel skin off & remove seeds.
Jen,
I am lucky enough to have 3 kaffir lime trees in my back yard. You are welcome to come over and pick some. Anyway, Draeger’s sometime have it, it just they charge too much for it! Chinese market (Ranch 99 or Marina) in cupertino almost always have it too.
elra - thanks! I might just take you up on your offer. Also, I just made the borek from your site — it’s in the oven now! I’m looking forward to it!
I’ll do the same with sugar snaps! I found nice fatty ones in the farmers market today..
I love spicy green beans and these sound great. Really cute mug as well!