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Dilly Wax Beans

1-2 handfuls wax beans, trimmed
1 T. Olive Oil
1 t. white vinegar
~1/2 t. dried dill (or 1 t. fresh)
~1/4 t. red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

Steam wax beans until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix the oil, vinegar, dill, and red pepper in a large bowl.  Add steamed wax beans and toss to coat.  Serve warm, or chill for 30 minutes and serve cold.

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This barely qualifies as a recipe, but these wax beans were so simple and tasty, I decided to share.

A couple weekends ago I was strolling through the Palo Alto farmer’s market when I came across two mountains of beans piled on a red checked table cloth;  one pile was blue lake green beans, and the other was gorgeous cream-colored wax beans.  I love green beans, but haven’t cooked much with wax beans since they’re generally less available than their green counterpart.  Feeling like I wanted to try something different, I grabbed a couple of big handfuls of the wax beans, and headed home to experiment.

Once home, I considered my options: pickled, steamed, roasted, sauteed, boiled — but yet none seemed to really ‘go’ with that night’s dinner… so, into the fridge went the beans, to be prepared at some later date.

And then life got busy — I got sick, work got busy, visitors came, I went out of town — and still the beans remained unused in the fridge…  About two weeks after purchasing them, I was digging through my tiny fridge and came across them.  Amazingly, they still looked great!  That’s one thing I LOVE about farmer’s market produce — it is SO FRESH, and it tends to keep longer than store bought produce.

So, grand plans aside, I quickly steamed the beans, and then tossed them with some olive oil, vinegar, dill, and red pepper flakes, then chilled the mixture while I prepared the rest of my dinner.  The result reminded me a little of marinated three bean salad, but with a simpler, cleaner taste.  And oddly, though I don’t love dill + green beans, dill + wax beans turned out to be a great combination!  Who’d have thought?

Anyhow, what are your favorite ‘non-recipe recipes’?

Still Hungry?   Try one of these:

- Spicy Slivered Green Beans with Lime and Cilantro

- Simplest Summer Fruit Melange

- Creamed Fava Beans with Bacon (Fèves au Lard Fumé)

- Sweet and Spicy Baked Beans

- Homemade Gravlax