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’?

Spicy Slivered Green Beans with Lime and Cilantro
Serves 2

1 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 lime

Stack 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.