Fresh Green Beans with Garlic Chili Lime Butter

Green beans do not have to be boring. No! No! No! Absolutely not! If you grew up on canned green beans, you may have trouble believing. Try this simple, tasty dish and be persuaded.

The idea comes from Alanna Kellogg with just a little tweak. Alanna does marvelous things with vegetables. Check her out here.

Start with a slim green bean. Mine came from the Blue Lake bush beans in the garden. Most of the beans available fresh in markets today fall into the slim category. These beans require the briefest of steaming or stir-frying to render them tender-crisp and bright green. That already sounds good, doesn’t it?

If you already have the garlic lime chili butter made (here), this is a really quick dish to put together.

Fresh Green Beans Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh slim green beans
• 2 tablespoons garlic lime chili butter (here), softened
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Fresh Green Beans Steps

1. Wash the green beans and cut off the stem ends.
2. Steam the green beans over boiling water for 2-3 minutes. (I like to remove them from the heat as soon as they turn bright green.)
3. Turn the beans into a serving dish and toss with the seasoned butter. Serve the beans hot or at room temperature. The flavor develops a bit if you can allow the beans to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Serve these beans as a tasty side dish or use them to build a composed salad or as the basis for bean bundles with bacon. Or get creative and come up with a half-dozen new ways to use these beans.