My absolute favorite way to eat green beans (well, to eat lots of things really) is stir fried in oil and yummy rich Chinese-y sauce. Who doesn’t love that?! Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to make a healthy version of stir-fried vegetables.
Enter Szechuan green beans! This is adapted from a recipe in my book Ken Hom’s Foolproof Chinese Cooking. I changed the recipe in part to make it healthier (who needs to deep-fry veggies before stir-frying them?), but also because it calls for several ingredients that you probably don’t just have in your pantry, and that are a little harder to find.
But I left one of these ingredients in: yellow bean paste. I looked it up and found that it goes by many names. If you venture to the Asian market for one thing, this should be it! In my very inauthentic-Chinese-food-making opinion. I’ve seen it in loads of Chinese recipes I’ve made, and I always used to just leave it out – which will still produce a delicious satisfying dish. But when I finally went to an Asian market with the help of my lovely Taiwanese friend and got my yellow bean paste, it made such a big difference in those dishes.
So you can choose to leave it out or not, but I highly recommend you try to get it! A picture to make your hunt a little easier:
serves 2
2 C green beans, ends trimmed
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 T minced fresh ginger
3 scallions, chopped (use white parts only – save those greens for a garnish on something!)
1 T sriracha
1 T yellow bean sauce
2 T Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 T soy sauce
2 t sugar
1 T water
2 t chili oil (only use 1 or just 1/2 t for a mild version)
1 T canola oil
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add green beans and blanch for about three minutes, then remove. If you plan to leave them out for more than a few minutes before stir-frying them, then I recommend putting them in a bowl of ice water to keep them pretty.
Heat canola oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the green beans, garlic, ginger, and scallions, and saute until green beans turn a little golden. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until just heated through.
Don’t eat this with a low-carb meal! You want plenty of rice or noodles to sop up all this amazing sauce!
Nutrition facts per serving: Calories: 209; Calories from Fat: 108; Total Fat: 12.0g; Saturated Fat: 1.3g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 643mg; Total Carbohydrates: 25.6g; Dietary Fiber: 4.4g; Sugars: 10.2g; Protein: 3.1g
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