This recipe is ridiculously simple, as long as you’re already keeping your bacon grease. Oh, wait, bacon fat. Whatever.
Say it with me, kids: “Everything’s Better With Bacon!”
Ingredients
1 pound fresh green beans
2-3 tablespoons bacon fat
1 cup diced onion (this is great for using up leftovers from last night’s hot dog cookout)
2 teaspoons kosher salt plus 2-3 tablespoons for the water
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Directions
Before I start, I would normally just dice and cook a half-pound of bacon and add the onion and green beans to it. But I didn’t have any bacon, and still wanted the green beans. This isn’t exactly as good, but it’s real close. So …
First trim the ends off all the beans. This is a bit tedious, but I don’t know of a better way. If you’ve got really young beans you can just pull the stems off and cook them, since the ends are still pretty tender.
Cut into bite-size pieces. If you want to get “fancy” cut them at an angle.
Bring a couple of quarts of water with a few tablespoons of salt to a boil. (This isn’t baking, you don’t have to measure it out.)
Once the water is boiling, add the beans and bring it back to a boil.
Once the beans have boiled for about 7-10 minutes, test one to see if it’s tender. Note that I said “tender”, not “mushy enough for baby food”. Overcook them at this step and you’ll get bacony green paste when you try to fry them.
As soon as the beans are tender but still a little firm, drain and rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process.
Melt the bacon fat over medium heat in a large skillet. It doesn’t need to be non-stick, the fat will keep the beans from sticking. Add the diced onion.
Sauté the onions until they start to brown, then add the beans, salt and pepper.
Toss a few times to make sure all the beans are coated with fat, and keep stirring over medium heat until the beans are heated through again.
And that’s it.
13 Comments
I suppose if we were doing this like my grandmother, boiling would be the way. I for one think that steaming might be better. The color would stay brighter and it is harder to overcook. This is a great recipe ‘cus lets face it EVERYTHING is better with bacon (and or cheese)
Now we're cookin' like grandma!! Mom was from West Virginia… back in the hills… We always had bacon in our green beans… and in all our greens for that matter!
This looks delicious. Now to find some fresh green beans. Seems like the ones I find in the store are woody and tasteless.
Low-carb dieting = I have SO much bacon fat in my fridge. I'll try this recipe with a lower-carb veg, like spinach! Delish!
Matt, I have a steamer, but it's in the basement because I can do most things without it.
Barb, I just may have to try some other greens this summer. I didn't grow up with them, so it would be an experiment.
Wendy, that's what the salt in the water is for. It causes the beans to absorb water and it really boosts the flavor.
Clare, I love that people are cooking with bacon fat as a "diet" food.
That's the only way to eat green beans. Except maybe deep fried… heh.
BTW, do you just happen to get great light in your kitchen or do you use artificial?
Bob, the light in my kitchen is horrible. I've got three secrets: Bright white compact fluorescents in the overhead and in one clip-on light; check/adjust the white balance in the in-camera meter before every shot; and lots of practice with digital image processing. If you saw the raw images I sometimes start with you'd be amazed.
I'm making this, I've planted green beans in our garden this year and I can't wait to have them!
Do you know how hard it is not to get jealous every time someone mentions what they're getting from their garden? [sigh]
When I make this, I add honey and halved cherry tomatoes near the end of cooking. So good!
Maybe my beans were exceptionally sweet, but I think honey would have been a bit much. Then again, I don't really eat a lot of sweets.
This was so good! Even my NON veggie eaters ate this. I now save bacon grease in the frig for this purpose only! Green Beans are plentiful this time of year. Eat until you're content! I think I will try it with purple onion next time for a sweeter flavor.
Cerise, repeat after me: Everything's better with bacon.