Green Beans with Onions, Garlic and Ginger

Name: Green Beans with Onions, Garlic and Ginger
Yield: 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/4 Cup (1.76 oz / 50 ml) Organic Olive Oil; 1 teaspoons (5 ml) Dried Organic Parsley; 16 oz. (454 g) Frozen Organic Green Beans; 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Dried Organic Oregano; 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Pink Himalayan Salt or to taste; 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) Dried Organic Thyme; 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) Dried Organic Basil; 1 inch (.49 oz. / 14 ml) Organic Ginger - Minced; 5 cloves (.71 oz. / 20 ml) Organic Garlic - Minced; Small Organic Onion (5.33 oz. / 151 ml) - Chopped; 2 Cups (15.87 oz. / 450 ml) Filtered or Spring Water; Cracked Tellicherry Black Pepper - Optional (1/4 teaspoon / 1.25 ml)

Jump to recipe

Green beans are delicious no matter how they are prepared even raw, right out of the garden. But you don’t need a recipe for raw green beans. So, we (Our Southern Odyssey) have spiced them up a bit by adding some onion, garlic and ginger as well as some other spices. As always, do not forget to use a cast iron skillet. There is just something wonderful that happen to any food when it is cooked in a cast iron skillet. As we are sure you know by now cast iron cookware is our favorite.

The green beans can be fresh out of the garden or frozen from your freezer. If they are is season definitely use the fresh. Green beans may be available at the Farmers’ Market in your area. But, since we really like green beans the frozen beans are great to have in the freezer year round. So, when we get a craving for green beans we just grab a pack from the freezer and start cooking. Also, remember to purchase green beans that are organically grown. This is very important since we eat the complete bean. We want our food as safe and pure as possible.

We prefer to either grow our green beans or purchase them from the farmers market because food that does not have to travel a long distance has better nutrition as well as flavor. I cannot say enough about the importance of local farmers markets. They really are essential to a community.

There are many different varieties of green beans some are long and thin others are fat and flat, some are purple while others are green. Whatever kind of green beans you prefer will work well with this recipe. We personally prefer the Haricots Verts green beans. They do great when cooked as well as make a great presentation on the table. Haricot vert is also known as French beans. They are thin and short in size. They also get really tender as they cook. Green beans are full of flavor which makes them perfect to hold up against the seasonings of the onion, garlic and ginger.

Instructions:

For this recipe you will need: a well seasoned cast iron skillet, kitchen scale, measuring cups and spoons, spatula, cutting board, chef knife as well as a paring knife.

To start, take about a one inch piece of organic ginger, peel it and mince the ginger. Place the minced ginger into a small bowl or move it to the side of the cutting board. Next take and peel five organic garlic cloves and mince them. The garlic can either be added to the small bowl with the ginger or moved to the side of the cutting board with the ginger either way will work great. Now take the time to peel and chop a small organic onion. We prefer to use sweet onions; however, any onion will work just fine.

Now that everything is chopped up and ready it is time to place the cast iron skillet on the stove eye (burner). Measure out the organic olive oil and add the oil to the skillet. Turn the stove eye (burner) on medium heat. Allow the oil and the skillet to heat up a little, about a minute or two.

Now add the ginger, garlic and onion to the skillet. Mix everything together with the spatula in the skillet with the oil. While we wait for the onions to turn translucent as they cook we will take the time to add the dried spices to the skillet. Take and add the organic dried parsley, thyme, basil and black pepper and mix again with the spatula, everything that is in the skillet. By now the onions should be soft and translucent. If they are it is time to add the green beans.

Add the green beans to the skillet. For this recipe we are using frozen organic Haricots verts green beans. After we add the green beans to the skillet we will now add pink Himalayan salt and filtered water to the beans. Mix the green beans a little with the spatula. Bring the water with the beans to a boil. This will take just a little time because the frozen green beans cooled down the skillet and the skillet will need to heat back up again.

As soon as the beans come to a boil (this needs to be a good rolling boil, not a barely bubble) reduce the heat to medium low. Cover the beans with a lid and allow the beans to simmer for thirty minutes. Be sure to check the beans after thirty minutes and make sure they are tender before turning the stove eye (burner) off.

To check and make sure that the green beans are tender stick the green beans with a fork. If the fork is easily inserted into the green bean then the green beans are tender and now ready to serve. If the fork is met with resistance then the green beans should probably cook a little longer. According to the type of green bean it is the cooking time will vary. American green beans sometimes take more time to cook than the French kind.

We hope that you enjoy the recipe and we look forward to hearing from you. Also, while you are here try our recipes for the main course. Many of them go really well with a side of green beans.