How to Make Garlicky Green Beans with Almonds
(To skip my story and get right to the recipe, just scroll down!)
Growing up on a farm in the Midwest, smack in the middle of sweet corn and soybean country…
…we grew our own food, then canned and preserved it, from mom’s huge garden. One of her pride and joy crops was green beans - row after row of them. First seeded and tended in the brief Illinois summertime, then harvested in the Autumn. Then enjoyed as a healthy side dish, canned in rows and rows of mason jars in the cellar, all year long! They were especially appreciated as a warm veggie dish in the long, bitter northern Illinois winters.
I was young, very young, those days. But I knew hard work early in my life (and to this day, I’m still thankful for my strong work ethic built from those days.) Harvest was backbreaking work, plucking bean after bean from the plants - and even then, the work wasn’t over. Afterwards, we’d sit on the front porch, spread our skirted legs around a five gallon bucket full of beans, and snap, snap, snap until they were the perfect size to can later in a mason jar. First, you pop off the top stem, but make sure you don’t “waste the bean” then snap the body of the bean into 2 or 3 pieces.
It felt like it took forever, but I would keep at it and work fast, so that there would still be time to climb the walnut tree in the back pasture or play with the newborn kittens up in the barn loft. Of course, that’s when the work truly began for my mom and older brother, as the canning process was too dangerous for us littles to be part of.
For the first couple years after we moved to the southwest desert, my mom bemoaned her loss of the garden and the food supply of FRESH, wholesome food. I understand this now, as an adult always on the search for wholesome food for my own offspring.
Nothing tastes as good as farm-grown veggies and I’ve truly never tasted the depth of that flavor since.
Now, when I’m craving a green bean dish, I get the organic ones from Costco as they come somewhat close to the ones I grew up on. They are affordable and crisp, FRESH.
That’s what I use in this recipe…
Ingredients
FRESH green beans (to make enough for each person eating, I grab a handful of beans per person!)
Sliced almonds (I just eye it, because we like a lot of almonds, but you could measure about palm size per 2 people)
5 cloves FRESH Garlic, minced
Unsalted Butter
Optional: 2 slices bacon, fried and crumbled (leave off for vegetarian version)
Optional: 1 FRESH Lemon (just to squeeze over it at the end of cooking if you’d like)
Instructions
Take a stock pot, fill halfway or so with water. (Enough to cover the green beans once you add them in.) Bring water to boiling over high heat, add the green beans to it and a shake of table salt, and boil on medium to high heat for about 8-10 minutes or until cooked to your taste. (I like mine halfway crispy/soft!)
Remove the green beans from water and drain in a strainer. Get a large frying pan ready.
Place the frying pan over medium heat, and add in the unsalted Butter. Once it’s melted, add in the sliced almonds and garlic. Toast over the melted butter for about 90 seconds, then add in the beans.
Toss the beans in the butter until just heated.
Add in the optional ingredients (bacon bits and lemon) at this point if you’re including them. Either way, this dish is so yummy!
