My Favourite Way With Green Beans
This is a brilliant way to cook one of my favourite summer vegetables.
I love cooking green beans like this. Boiled for 2 minutes in water, you then cook the beans again in a rich tomato sauce until the beans reach a soft and luscious tangle. From here, you have a brilliant canvas for lots of other ingredients, in this instance and for this recipe, I’m serving the twice cooked beans with seasoned yogurt and some pine nuts which I have fried in ghee flecked through with chilli flakes. I’ve also added some seasoned yogurt and chopped coriander to serve. Eat this dish warm or cold, the flavour will only get better as the dish sits.
I’ve served the beans with some giant couscous which I’ve cooked, drained and dressed with salt, lemon juice and some olive oil.
Top tip; you can add any of the following ingredients to the beans cooked in tomato sauce recipe, the flavours and ingredients you choose leading you to different locations in the world; crumbled feta, torn mozzarella, fried halloumi, basil, fresh oregano, chopped dill, anchovies, olives, toasted walnuts or almonds and grated parmesan.
This is also a great side dish to a number of meat or fish dishes.
INGREDIENTS
Basic preparation for beans;
400g green beans, trimmed
2 onions, peeled and finely diced
3 garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1x 400g tin tomato polpa
3 bay leaves
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
I added the following, to serve
2 tbsp pine nuts
1 tbsp ghee, or use butter or use olive oil
Big pinch of chilli flakes
100g Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic
Big pinch of salt
1 lemon
Coriander, roughly chopped
Pomegranate molasses
Giant couscous, as much as you want to cook to serve, dressed with salt, lemon and olive oil
METHOD
In a pan over a moderate heat add 1/2 the olive oil and the onions and cook for 8 - 10 minutes. Add the garlic and bay leaves and cook for 2 minutes more.
Meanwhile boil the green beans in well salted water for 2 minutes, until just tender, then drain.
Add the tinned tomatoes to the onion and garlic and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the drained beans to the tomato sauce, put a lid on and cook for a further 15 minutes, until the beans are soft and the tomato sauce is rich and thickened. Check the seasoning and add the final 2 tbsp olive oil to enrich. Remove from the heat and let the beans ‘rest’ for at least 5 minutes, this dish is best served warm or at room temperature.
Season the yogurt with a big pinch of salt and the juice of 1/2 the lemon.
In a small pan add the ghee and fry the pine nuts in the ghee over a moderate heat for 2 minutes until golden. Remove from the heat and add the chilli flakes.
Dress the tomato beans with ghee chilli flecked pine nuts, some chopped coriander and a big spoon of the seasoned yogurt to serve along with the remaining lemon cut into wedges to squeeze (or use pomegranate molasses).