Every week we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was Sauteed Green Beans & Cherry Tomatoes, found over at EatingWell.com. Printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.
Robyn’s Take:
This week’s recipe was my choice, and I foisted it off on Fred because sometimes a girl’s just tired of trying to pick a recipe. After I rejected his okra-based suggestion (I could ONLY imagine what Nance would have said about that – and now that I said that, she’s going to be all “I love okra!” Liar.), he came up with this one. We have tons of cherry tomatoes right now, and harvested 73 tons of green beans earlier this Summer, so this seemed like a good – and relatively easy – way to use up some of that stuff.
The ingredients:
A pound of green beans – previously in the freezer, thawed – 2 cups of cherry tomatoes (we grow Sungold tomatoes – they’re orange when they’re ripe, so those are NOT unripe tomatoes)(also, if you’ve never tried Sungolds, you are missing OUT)(also also, recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of tomatoes, but I decided to round up), Balsamic vinegar, olive oil (recipe called for extra virgin, but Fred hates the extra virgin, so it’s plain ol’ olive oil), garlic, salt and pepper.
Step one: heat oil over med-high heat, saute green beans 2 – 3 minutes. Not pictured: add water, cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 3 – 6 minutes, depending on how tender you want your green beans. Mine were already pretty tender from being blanched, cooled, frozen, ignored for a couple of months, and then thawed out, so I opted for 3 minutes.
Next step: Push the beans to the side, add the remaining oil, add garlic, and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. I probably used more garlic than the recipe called for, because I always do. I LOVE garlic.
Next: add tomatoes (which I got around to slicing in half, you’ll note.)
Stir all that stuff together, and cook ’til the tomatoes start to break down, 2 – 3 minutes.
Remove from heat, add the vinegar, salt and pepper, and stuff in your face.
The verdict? I thought it was just okay; Fred LOVED it. In fact, we had it as a side dish the day I made the London Broil (aren’t I just so EFFICIENT?) and for dinner the next night, Fred had some of the London Broil, sliced, in a tortilla. He topped the steak with a big spoonful of the Sauteed Green Beans & Cherry Tomatoes. Doesn’t that sound gross? And what’s worse is that two days later he was going to have MORE of the green beans and cherry tomatoes on a tortilla by itself (or maybe on a little piece of leftover London Broil, I don’t remember which), and he was mad that I’d tossed the rest of it in the pig bucket.
(In my defense, I had no idea he liked it THAT much.)
So yeah – great big double thumbs up from Fred, and a meh from me. Maybe a little more than a meh. A meh-plus.
Before I turn it over to Nance, here you go: Inspector-in-training RatBat Picklehead is not impressed with your shit.
(ie, gratuitous kitten shot ’til I can actually remember to take a picture of him stomping around on the counter.)
PS: Nutritional info is included in the recipe notes ONLY because it was provided in the original recipe.
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Nance’s Take:
I was going to sit here and try to justify why I did what I did to this poor recipe, but telling the truth is a lot easier. I was being a BITCH.
My mother has made it her mission to repeatedly remind me of things that I am well aware of until I finally lose.my.shit. Enter: THIS GODDAMN GREEN BEAN RECIPE. I had heard so much about it that one night I dropped everything I was doing and made this dish…with the attitude of a 14-yr-old girl that was just grounded from her cell phone.
Back story: I really dislike fresh green beans. They’re gross. I remember as a child having to pick what seemed like acres of them. Then we had to sit outside in the hot sun and snap those little fuckers by the bushel. And I won’t even get started on how much I hated those little yellow bugs that were sometimes attached to them. Trust me, the horror that is my childhood and gardening is best kept to myself. Just know this: I DO NOT garden as an adult and I honestly believe that forced gardening is child abuse, MOM.
So yeah, I conveniently didn’t have fresh green beans on hand. I just grabbed two cans off the shelf and went to town and justified it by saying that I’m giving people an alternative just in case they also don’t have fresh on hand. Shush, you.
They were two different brands and I did not care because they were the last two cans of green beans I had in the house. And I really couldn’t tell the difference when I dumped them in the skillet. I also didn’t bother to waste the second can of beans as the recipe called for 1 pound (16 ounces) and the cans were 14.5 ounces each. I just threw them all in the skillet and sighed heavily so my mother would know how annoyed I was. Oh, is that a Polish Pottery spoon holder back there? I think it is!
Don’t get too excited to play this game, I only have one more piece.
Blah, blah, fry in olive oil, push to the side. Can this recipe get any more boring?
During my childhood I ate a lot of green beans. Because they were fried in a cast iron skillet with LARD. My mother canned them so it was very common to just bust open a jar, dump it in the skillet and fry them until they were partially burned. We called this a side dish and I loved them (of course, because I am Fatty McFatt).
My mom sliced these cherry tomatoes for me. Probably because she knew I was agitated and felt guilty. My poor mom. Oh wait, she’s the asshole that kept bothering me about these damn beans! So she deserves it! Heh.
Get my garlic from a jar (like normal people do, ahem). And didn’t bother to measure it because hello, I am an immature human being that is pissed off about green beans!
Action shot! I haz mad skilz!
This is what they turned out like. I have to admit that I was truly not impressed and it had nothing to do with my hissy fit. They were just not that great. Rick didn’t like them and I really thought he would as he likes them when they’re fried in soy or Worcestershire sauce. The balsamic vinegar didn’t help it at all and I thought it would. Shirley said they were okay, but eh, she doesn’t care either way if I ever make it again.
It’s not a winner, but it’s not a loser either. I just think it’s not our thing.
9/14/12: Comments closed due to spammers.
- 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 pound green beans, trimmed
- ½ cup water
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1½ cups halved cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
- Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add green beans and cook, stirring often, until seared in spots, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add water, cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes for tender-crisp or 6 minutes for tender.
- Push the beans to the side; add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add tomatoes, stir everything together and cook until the tomatoes begin to break down, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat; stir in vinegar, salt and pepper.
