We use to go out to eat for Chinese food-we use to be fatter, as well. You can’t help but link the two together, right? Well, perhaps there are other factors in to be considered but that is not the entire purpose of this blog post today.  One dish that is my husband’s favorite to order is the stir fry green beans, they are crisp and garlic kissed and seemingly innocent to the waist line. Seemingly is the key, who knows what they add to the sauce those beans are cooked with, right?

Now, consider my garden, as I mentioned in previous posts–it is just a hodgepodge of plants all swirling around and under one another hoping for the best spot in the sun and in the earth.  Well, I have beans growing there! Right near my unnamed squash plant and behind the other mystery plant–I had green beans, wax beans and burgundy beans. The burgundy ones are beautiful  and not pictured here because small children and even smaller bugs also enjoy the flavor and color of this garden harvest!  I did manage to save a large amount of wax beans and decided to give them a toss in a pan to see if I can reasonably recreate the bean dish my sweet husband likes so much.

So, first thing I considered is the beans are crisp and not all flippy-flop when you eat them but they are cooked through so–they must be blanched I concluded in another kitchen genius moment. So, I set up the water to boil, snapped the tops and ends off the beans and prepared the ice bath for the heated yellow veggies.

If you have not blanched a bean–let me walk you through it because it is super easy and weird.

Set up a pan of boiling water and a separate pan filled with ice water.  Add the beans to the rapidly boiling water and boil for 3 minutes, set a timer stand by the stove and let your mind wander for 3 minutes.

Bean ice baths are not as controversial as they look

Once the timer goes off and you fade back into the kitchen activity and away from the daydream, use a large slotted spoon to toss the beans right into the ice bath. This will make them talk!  Let them sit in the ice bath for about 1-2 minutes–you want them to completely stop cooking.  While they were cooling off I set a cast iron skillet on medium high heat and added a slab of butter and let that melt, sizzle and turn slightly brown.  Drain your beans in a colander to completely remove the excess water on the outside of them. Prevents you being burned when you drop these babies into the hot pan.

In the now hot skillet I added a shaved garlic clove–this means I sliced it super thin, my garden does not grow hairy garlic–does yours? I want to see it!  Once the lovely scent of that garlic hits your nose add in the beans and toss to cover them in the butter and garlic.  I tossed them in this for another 3 minutes then removed from the heat, stirred in some sesame seeds and a generous pinch of sea salt and served them up.

Easy Summer meal

I paired the beans with a juicy turkey breast burger as shown.

So, the conclusion my husband had for the closeness or the Chinese restaurant hidden calorie beans and these were– “These almost taste like the ones at the Chinese food place!”   I win!

Really, this is such a simple recipe and so easy to do and was really super yummy. My son’s girlfriend was over when I was making them and I forced one on her as well and she really liked them. So, this garden to table dish is husband and teenager approved!

This post is also being shared on Real Food Wednesdays-click to see more Real Foods!