Long Beans with Garlic

Maisie and I picked some gorgeous long beans from our garden and we couldn’t wait to enjoy them. 

One of my favorite ways to enjoy long beans is the way we make them when we’re in Aruba with my parents (very limited pantry items) and that is sautéed simply with butter and lots of garlic. Such a simple way to prepare the beans and oh-so delicious.  In this recipe I use a good amount of garlic but I cook it so that it has that mellow roasted garlic flavor so it adds a nice sweet buttery garlic taste to the beans.  For many this preparation will seem like I use too much butter and way too much garlic but that’s just how we roll with this recipe.  Also, see those slightly toasted creamy bits of garlic, well I could just spread that on everything I eat and be in heaven, it’s so delicious!

Long beans are very thin so they sauté up quickly and because we like our beans to still have a bit of bite, there’s no need to steam or cook the beans further but if you substitute regular string beans you’d have to make some adjustments so that the beans cook to your degree of tenderness.

Long Beans with Garlic

1 lb. long beans, trimmed and cut into 3-inch lengths
4 TBS. butter
2 heads garlic, peeled and minced
salt and fresh ground pepper

In a wok or large frying pan gently sauté the garlic in the butter over very low heat for about 5 minutes until the garlic is very tender but NOT toasted.  Turn the heat to high and add the beans and stir to coat with the garlic butter mixture.  Stirring a couple of time each minute, cook the beans on high heat for about 4 minutes then remove from the heat. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy