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How to prepare green beans

Here's how to turn freshly bought (or picked) green beans into ready-to-use vegetables.

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Last modified on: August 11^th 2023

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For 450 g, you will need:

1 2 cups + 2 tablespoons green beans

Change these quantities to make: 150 g 225 g 450 g 900 g 1 kg 350 g

Change measures: Metric

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How long does it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Start to finish
22 min.	22 min.

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Step by step recipe

Stage 1

Green beans are all good...

Stage 2

...except for the two ends or tips, which have to be removed - that's the whole job of preparing them.

There are 2 methods for achieving this.

Stage 3

The "old-fashioned" way

Take each bean in your hand, then with the other hand break off the tip by bending it, throw it away, then do the same with the other tip.

Stage 4

To obtain a bean like this.

This is the procedure when dealing with stringy beans, and breaking the tip by hand also removes the threads.
No secret, it's quite a long process...

Perhaps it's something you've already done, back in the day, at your grandmother's house?

Stage 5

Quick method

With stringy beans all but extinct these days, a much quicker method is to take a small packet of beans...

Stage 6

...and cutting off all the ends at once, on one side...

Stage 7

...then the other.

Stage 8 - 20 min.

Use the method of your choice for all the beans, and place them in a colander.

Stage 9 - 2 min.

Then wash them, and your green beans are ready to cook.

Stage 10

Cooking

Cook the beans in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender.

Stage 11

Drain and refresh under cold running water to stop cooking immediately.

Drain again carefully.

Stage 12

You can then cut them into pieces (more or less small), depending on your recipe.

Stage 13

If you intend to use them in a salad, I recommend drying them carefully in a tea towel beforehand, to remove any cooking water that might interfere with your salad dressing.

Alternatively, you can spin them.

Remarks

You can prepare butter beans (yellow) in the same way.

Keeping

A few days in the fridge, and can be frozen.

Source

Home made.

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
190 Kcal or 795 Kj	13 gr	35 gr	0 gr
10 %	5 %	3 %	0 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
38 Kcal or 159 Kj	3 gr	7 gr	0 gr
2 %	1 %	1 %	0 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

How much will it cost?

For 450 g : 2.00 €

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Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

Green beans: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Cherry tomato and green bean salad, Salmon "en papillote" with small vegetables, Grandma's salad, Rolls of fish in smoked ham, Macédoine of vegetables, ... All

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