Falling In Love with Green Beans: Favorite Recipes

Every year, I seem to fall in love with a new vegetable. One year beets, another year corn. Then one year something hit me about green beans – and I haven't looked back since, collecting one new green bean recipe after another. Here are my favorite recipes. Perhaps this is your year to fall in love with green beans too?

FIRST, HOW TO TURN GREEN BEANS from GOOD to GREAT
Great beans may start with the beans – fresh, snappy, fragrant – but it takes two more things to draw out the most flavor. Once I learned these two "secret" ingredients, wow, there was no not falling in love with green beans.

WATER Cook green beans in what will seem like a lot of water – that means eight full cups for every pound of beans.

SALT What does "well-salted water" mean? Salt the water with a full tablespoon of table salt (or two tablespoons of kosher salt).

BUT AREN'T WE ALL SUPPOSED TO AVOID SALT? Yeah, yeah, I know, salt is supposed to be bad for us and we're told to avoid it. But that advice is directed at the "average" eater who often eats salt-laden processed food and fast food. When we cook at home, when we use whole ingredients, we leave room in our diets for salt – especially when it makes us go crazy for green beans! (More info: According to Salt-Reduction Efforts May Need Different Approach from the Wall Street Journal, 75% of our salt consumption comes from packaged food and restaurants.)
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