Green beans are inexpensive, delicious, they go with everything as a side dish and they are slap bang in season now. They come in many varieties, not all of them green, and some of them not actually beans!
That’s because apart from green French beans, runner beans and broad beans, there are yellow French or purple Italian beans, every bit as tasty as the greenies. And don’t forget some pea varieties that we can eat with pods, just like beans: sugar snaps and mangetout.
Green (and otherwise) beans are usually popular with kids and that’s very good too, because they are obviously a great source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. And if you dislike those pesky strings found in runners and sugar snaps – stringing beans can be hugely therapeutic!
And so, now for my top green bean recipes.
When broad beans are new, tiny and firm, you want to eat them whole as a snack. Later in the season they get starchier and make a delicious side dish lightly crushed, with garlic and herbs. If double-shelling scares you – that’s therapeutic too.
Persian rice with broad beans, baghali polo, is fragrant, green and yellow with dill and saffron. It’s a classic Iranian side dish for lamb shanks but who cares about lamb? Baghali polo is all you will want.
Persian rice with broad beans
RECIPE
The sauce is a shortcut between mornay and thermidor and it’s an easy way to cook the loveliest and the most versatile cheesy creamy concoction. Then just blanch the beans, bury them under the sauce blanket and scatter some almond flakes before you bake it.
Green beans with Parmesan cream
RECIPE
Green beans are served with a quick and easy, rough and ready chunky tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes. Because both are in season at the same time, and they go together beautifully.
Green beans and tomatoes
RECIPE
Don’t wait till November to make this casserole, even though it’s the traditional Thanksgiving dish. It’s much better made with fresh green beans anyway, and with fresh mushrooms rather than contents of a Campbell soup tin.
For ages, I’d thought runner beans were an inferior vegetable: tough, fibrous and stringy. But if picked early enough, before they grow too large, they are gorgeous. Especially when sliced thin, gently blanched then tossed in a garlicky, buttery dressing.
If you’re lucky to grow your own runner beans, you might even use them raw in this salad, if you’ve picked them early enough before they turn stringy. Otherwise, briefly cooked, they’ll still make a wonderful salad with bulgur and chorizo sausage, in vibrant Rasta colours.
Bulgur wheat with chorizo and runner beans
RECIPE
Broad bean and smashed pea bruschetta with herbs, garlic and a drizzle of olive oil is a starter, lunch or appetiser to kill for. Best with new, vibrant and firm broad beans, but it’s the matter of taste actually – many people prefer the beans when mature and starchier. Either way, the dish gives a completely new meaning to beans on toast!
A riff on the Sichuan dry-fried beans, my recipe is a far less complicated affair, which also does not feature deep frying, as you’ll be pleased to find. Crispy chilli in oil, aka chilli crisp, is the star ingredient here.
Blistered beans with chilli oil
RECIPE
Snap peas, mangetout or French beans – any bean variety can be cook in this delicious way, blanched with a crunch, glossy with flavoured olive oil and topped with crispy strings of spring onions.
Sugar snap peas with crispy onions
RECIPE