Sauteed Green Beans with Walnuts
This should probably be called ‘Boiled Green Beans’ seeing as I actually didn’t saute them, but boiled green beans just sounds so off, no? However, you can easily saute the beans after boiling, I’ll state how at the end of the recipe, note ingredients with the asterisk/star, so this will be like a two-in-one recipe, kinda…
This is a really simple recipe, takes almost no time at all and is healthy to boot!
To make sauteed/boiled green beans, here’s what you’ll need:
Handful of green beans
Water
Salt
Handful chopped walnuts
*Olive oil (Canola will also work, even vegetable or butter)
*Chopped/minced garlic
*Chopped/minced ginger
*1/2 tsp Goya Adobo seasoning (either use this or salt, but not both; substitute for 1 maggi/knorr cube)
*1/2 tsp Black pepper
1. Thaw green beans (if they’re frozen).
2. Rinse green beans (to remove dirt etc).
3. Cut off tips of green beans; set aside.
4. Fill a pot halfway with water. Add enough salt so it’s shockingly salty (you don’t want to under-salt as this needs salt; when you taste it, you’ll know when it’s shockingly salty). Let salted water boil over medium heat. Add green beans.
5. Boil for 5-10 minutes until firm yet tender (or as long as you feel is necessary, 15 minutes maybe, but not too much longer or else you’ll lose the ‘green’ benefits!). Once done, drain the water from the beans. Add beans to plate. Sprinkle some walnuts over.
Voila!
*At this point, to make sauteed green beans, simply do the following:
- In a fry pan, add 1 tbsp Olive/Canola/Vegetable oil or butter
- Add chopped/minced garlic and ginger (1/2 a tsp should do, if this is too much, add a pinch instead)
- Let heat up over medium heat (you don’t want the oil to heat up first, so the flavors of the garlic/ginger infuses into the oil)
- Add seasonings; reduce heat to low
- Add drained green beans
- Quickly stir fry
- Add chopped walnuts into pan and stir OR just sprinkle on top of beans after plating
**Conversely, you could use bacon fat: just fry up some bacon and instead of discarding the bacon grease, use that in place of the olive oil.
***You could also chop up the bacon and sprinkle it over the beans
Eat alone or serve with fish, breast or pork chops; basically something lean OR serve it as a side to a main meal like mashed potatoes or sweet potato chunks. However you serve it is really up to you!
I served it with fried whiting fish… you could also drizzle some olive oil over the beans if you wish.
It’s much healthier to boil the beans as opposed to sauteing it – especially if you add bacon… yum! – but not very waist line friendly.
Either way you decide to prepare green beans…
Enjoy…
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I think that sautee can be very healthy! It depends on how its done. Clearly if you saute in bacon grease/ grease/ lard/ butter – whatever, its guna be bad, but use olive oil or canola oil makes a healthy dish, and helps conserve the most vitamins (vs. boiling and steaming in which vitamins can leak out). Thats just my opinion :3
Hi Brandie!
I’ve never actually tried sauteeing green beans before and I have heard of losing some of the vitamins, but boiling is just a personal preference.
thanks for stopping by, hope to see you around more! :)