Recipe Tuesday - Spicy Chinese Green Beans

A few years ago we discovered spicy Szechwan green beans at a local Chinese restaurant. Oh YUM!  We loved those beans so much that the actual meals ordered were a second thought. Sadly, that restaurant closed and our favorite beans went bye-bye. 

However, recently our friends had us over for a casual dinner and she served spicy Chinese style green beans. They were the closest thing that I'd had to the ones at "the Wok". She was gracious enough to share her recipe with me and I've made them twice now. The first time I was true to her recipe, and the second time I changed it up a bit because we like them with a bit more kick. The recipe below uses my modifications. 

Spicy Chinese Green Beans

   

• 1 lb. fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
• cooking spray or 1 Tbsp peanut oil
• 1 tsp minced ginger root
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp water
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce (I use the reduced sodium version)
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes

Arrange beans in a veggie steamer. Cover and stem for 5 minutes. Drain and plunge beans into ice water. Let sit for a few minutes, then drain beans again. Coat a wok or large skillet with cooking spray or peanut oil and get the pan nice and hot. Add ginger and garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add beans, saute for 5 more minutes. Combine last 7 ingredients well and add to beans. Cook 30 more seconds or until completely heated and the cornstarch makes the sauce look a bit transluscent and glossy. 

I would guess that if you want these even hotter, you could add a bit of chili oil to the sauce as a substitute for the sesame oil.  

Yummy!  These beans alone could be a meal for me. Delish and easy to do with all of the fresh produce that's in season right now. 

Oh, and for the record, I am loving my heavy stainless steel cookware. Big time. 

 
 

Have a super day. Cook something new today!

 

Comments

[Sandi Neumann]

I can not wait to make these! I so love the real hot style. I bet Costco's mini no string bean would do the trick. Many thanks:)

[Stefanie]

Yum, gotta try these! Wonderful, as always!

[Lorell]

I love a good recipe for fresh green beans...I'll have to give these a whack!

[Health Insurance]

A healthy beans with a little kick of spicy flavour yummy.

[Hollygtn]

I like asparagus this way too! By the way. I wonder if this is the sauce I had on crab legs once that had a "black bean" sauce on them? It was a brown sauce with a little kick. Awfully messy to crack your legs w/ the sauce on them, but oh so good!

http://blog.scrapallier.com

[Creative Junkie]

Shockingly enough, my kids love green beans! I know! And they would probably love this recipe - thank you!

[Lisa Hunt (Roxy)]

ooooh they look lovely - I love green beans, might have to give this a try! Thank you! xx

[Darcy]

Perfect timing for this! As our beans begin to ripen..we're about to be overrun and I've been looking for new ways to prepare them! This looks really good!

[Dawn]

Ooooo, looks scrumptious! And I love green beans, specially with a little kick to them! definitely going to give these a try! Thanks for the recipe.