Chinese Garlic Green/ Yellow Beans
Yellow Beans from the garden
The past few weeks have been somewhat momentous. All of August, that dreaded moment of my youngest leaving haunted me, and finally it happened. This weekend is my first weekend without either of them. In an empty house to boot. The garden has been bringing in all kinds of offerings to boot. The most prolific of these have been the bush beans, low maintenance and predictable. They are yellow rather than green, however the brightness is a fun thing. I have been getting close to a pound of these every week. So I decided to try cooking them the Chinese Way.
I looked at a variety of recipes, like this one and then this one with added pork. Looking through all of this, I generally got the technique of “Dry Frying”. It is different, not too taxing giving me enough to distract myself from life. I keep telling myself, you will find a new normal.
Vegetarian Substitute for the Meat
I came up with a vegetarian substitute for the meat. I use a combination of minced mushrooms and walnuts for this. It adds texture and a deep Umami. It also gives you a good protein balance with the added fat. In short, guilt free flavor.
The Stir Frying
I use a very hot skillet sprayed with cooking spray, and cook the beans for a good 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to allow uniform blistering. The rest of the recipe is all about the garlic and a handful of flavoring ingredients like garlic (yes, lots of garlic), soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar and some sugar.
It makes for a perfect balanced dish.
How to Enjoy the Chinese Garlic Green Beans
Frankly, you can enjoy them just as is. Serve them with a side of steamed rice or other grain. Go all fancy and enjoy them with your favorite fried rice, make it more elaborate by pairing it with this Chinese Style Chicken with Black Beans. As they say, it is all good.
Just as a note, I have tried this with broccoli and it works out pretty well too!
A flavorful take on restaurant style Chinese Green beans.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup quartered mushrooms
- 1/4 cup walnuts (about 6 pieces
- Cooking spray
- 1 pound of Beans trimmed
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or balsamic
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1/2 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 8 cloves)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Place the mushrooms and the walnuts in a food processor and process until pureed, remove and set aside.
- Heat a large skillet or wok until very hot, spray with cooking spray. Add the beans and let them wilt and start blistering, stir occasionally to allow uniform blistering.
- In the meantime, mix the soy sauce or coconut aminos, rice vinegar, sesame oil and sugar until uniformly mixed. Set this aside.
- Remove the beans from the wok or skillet.
- Add in the garlic and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and toffee colored.
- Add in the mushroom mixture and cook for about 5 to 6 minutes, to allow the mixture to release the water and cook through, it will shrink to about half the volume.
- Add in the beans and mix well, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add in the seasoning mixture, stirring well. Allow the mixture to come to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes and serve immediately.