Easy Green Bean Recipes -
How to Cook Green Beans

My favorite easy green bean recipes - green bean soup, sauteed green beans…

Cooking Green Beans

There are many types of green beans - flat, round, long or short. Their color can vary from bright green to pale yellowish, though some species can also be purple.

Since we use only young green beans for consumption, in which the seed hasn't been fully developed, the species with the thicker crust and smaller, undeveloped seeds have an advantage.

We can use them in many ways for culinary use: in stews, salads, casseroles, or we can even freeze them.

Here's a tip when buying them fresh: young legumes have to be thin, and their crust should feel like velvet, and without glow. It has to be soft, easy to break, and its natural fluid should appear on the site you've broken it. If you bought them with string inside, try soaking them in water first. Then it will be easier to remove the string.

Easy Green Beans Recipes

String Beans, Easy Green Bean Recipes

Here's another interesting fact:

Green beans shouldn’t be consumed raw, since they contain glycoside of cyanide acid, which is poisonous; they become edible only once they’re cooked.

They contain a lot of cellulose, which improves your digestion. They are also great diuretic and stimulate excretion of harmful substances.  

Green bean nutrition

The green bean is a plant from the legume family, which has a high nutritional value and a pleasant taste.

They are rich in protein, vitamins and minerals.

They thrive in areas with a moist and cool climate.

Whether you freeze them or use them canned, green beans will retain all their nutritional properties.

Easy Green Beans Recipes

Easy Green Beans Recipes

How to Freeze Green Beans

Should you blanch green beans before freezing? If they are young and fresh – no.

If you have doubts whether they are young, it would be better to boil them for one minute, so they won’t be too hard when you're preparing the dish. Drain them well and let them cool before putting in plastic bags to freeze.

Their lifetime is 16 months and they do not require unfreezing during that period!

Some Easy Green Bean Recipes

Cold Green Bean Salad

This is a very simple salad, and I prefer to make it this way:

Ingredients:

  • ½ kg frozen (or fresh) green beans
  • 2-3 garlic cloves (or as much as you like)
  • Vinegar or lemon juice to taste
  • 1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Cook the green beans for about 10-15 minutes in salted water, until they soften. Strain well and let them cool.

Spice up with olive oil and vinegar. Add chopped garlic, parsley and pepper. Salt to taste and stir well. Put in the refrigerator to cool.

 

Green Bean Soup

Ingredients:

  • 500 g  green beans
  • 1 medium-sized potato
  • 1 carrot
  • 200 g chicken, chunked
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
  • Salt to taste

Instructions:

Put green beans, carrot, potato, garlic and chunked meat in a pot.

Cook for 20-30 minutes, or until all the vegetables turn soft. Before the end of cooking add parsley.

Take the meat out and use a hand blender to blend vegetables into a nice creamy soup. Chop the meat and put it back in the pot.

You can add some tomatoes or cooking cream into the soup if you like.

 

Sauteed Green Beans

This is one of easy green beans recipes that I cook really often. It is great for small children, since it contains a lot of vegetables.

Ingredients:

  • ½ kg round green beans
  • ½ kg tomato
  • 2 onions
  • 4 potatoes, chopped into cubes
  • 1paprika, chopped into small pieces
  • 2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt to taste

Instructions:

Clean the green beans, wash them and cut them into smaller pieces.

Fry the chopped onions and green beans in olive oil, add some salt, and simmer in 2-3 cups water.

When the green beans are half done, add the paprika, tomato and potato. Pour with water so everything is covered and cook until all the vegetables become soft.

Just before they are finished add some chopped parsley.

 



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