Friday, October 10, 2008

One Of My Favorite (Easy) Things

Yes, I'm on a blog roll! Chris is gone for this entire holiday weekend so he's left me alone to post lots of recipes without him pestering me to cook him things (in truth I'm lonely. really lonely). Sooo anyhoo, here is fabulous, healthy side dish that you can make with supermarket green beans that are clearly past their prime--Roasted Green Beans, from Cook's Illustrated. Don't do this recipe with fresh, crisp haricots verts--use this when you have raggedy old string beans from the bargain bin at Safeway.

As Cook's Illustrated helpfully explains, roasting the over-the-hill string beans produces deeply flavored, caramelized, crisp-on-the-outside and tender-on-the-inside green beans that are as poppable as french fries. The roasting also encourages the Maillard reaction, which gives the beans these beautiful dark brown spots. This recipe is also extremely healthy, as it only requires 1 tbsp of olive oil per 4-6 servings.

This roasting method is also fabulous with cauliflower--resulting in cauliflower "popcorn"--and I'll likely post that recipe sometime in the near future as well!

1 pound green beans, stem ends snapped off
1 tbsp olive oil
Table salt and black pepper
(yes, that's it!!)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 450 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; spread beans across the foil. Drizzle with oil; using hands, toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt, toss to coat, and distribute in an even layer. Roast 10 minutes

2. Remove baking sheet from oven. Using tongs, redistribute beans (or just shake the pan, if you are lazy like me). Continue roasting until beans are dark golden brown in spots and have started to shrivel, 10-12 minutes longer.

3. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, transfer to serving bowl, and serve.

1 comment:

SP31415 said...

Hey,
Nice recipe. You inspired me to write up a green bean recipe too. I'll try yours if you try mine.... actually I'll try yours either way.