Sautéed Green Beans with Nouc Cham

The truth about families is they all have their oddities, a member who just doesn’t fit the mold. This certainly rings true for the legume family. When you think of legumes, most likely dried beans, lentils, and peas come to mind. Then there’s the green bean—a standout for sure. Is it really a legume? Most legumes are inedible pods; the goodness is the mature seed that’s inside the pod. With green beans, the edible part is the whole thing (minus the stem).

Green beans are picked when they’re young and tender. So tender, in fact that they’re often called snap beans. Sometimes they’re referred to as string beans, a holdover from a time when green beans had a fibrous strand running the length of one side of the pod—you had to “string” them to make them pleasant to eat. Modern varieties are stringless.

Green beans are quick to prepare:

• Eat them raw: Wash, serve whole for dipping or cut small for salad.   
• Heat and eat: Wash, blanch or lightly cook in plenty of boiling salted water—no lid please. When bright green, drain them and let cool. If serving cold, drain and plunge them in icy cold water. Hot or cold, wait to dress them until almost ready to serve—adding the acid ingredient (lemon and other fruit juice, vinegar, wine) too far ahead will turn your pretty green beans gray.  
• Sauté: Warm oil in skillet, add your washed and stemmed green beans, stir them around in the warm oil, put the lid on and leave them alone. Steam in the closed pot cooks the green beans quickly without over-browning. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a dash of lemon juice or vinegar if you like—just enough to brighten the flavor.  

How you prepare green beans has a lot to do with your family tradition. Rather than a quick dip in boiling water, stewing—with or without meat for flavoring, with or without potatoes—results in fall apart tender beans with the taste of home.