Green Bean

I called this recipe “3 beans and some chicken” because I didn’t want to put on any airs. If you’re having people over for dinner and your guests inquire what you are serving, by all means posh it up and inform them that you are preparing “Lemon-Scented Sautéed Poulet with Legume Ragout.” Snap!

Green beans and almonds are a classic combination. Here we’ve given it our own interpretation by pairing the blanched green beans with an almond-yogurt dressing. We like French feta for this because it tends to be sweeter and less salty than Greek or Bulgarian feta. This is a wonderful cold dish that travels well for picnics or meals on the go.

This is one of those simple French vegetable combinations that just taste really good, especially for Friday night dinner, next to a well-roasted chicken. Although it has become popular to cook green beans for a short time, I still prefer them when they are meltingly tender!

Visiting the marketplace of Carpentras, near Avignon, we almost missed the synagogue, the oldest still-functioning one in France, dating back to 1367 and renovated in the eighteenth century. The façade, like that of all synagogues in France, was nondescript, whereas inside it was a jewel box of eighteenth-century Greek Corinthian columns, and all around, the interior was decorated in rose, green, blue, and yellow. As in the synagogue in nearby Cavaillon, the rabbi’s pulpit was perched upstairs, above the congregants. “In 1358, the provincial town of Carpentras was known as La Petite Jérusalem,” Jennie Lévy told us during a tour. “A yellow cloth on their coats and on the women’s bonnets indicated that they were Jewish.” Today about eighty Jewish families live in Carpentras and the surrounding area, most of them emigrants from Morocco. Madame Lévy, who came from Safi, Morocco, in 1964, showed me the basement, which has a mikveh (ritual bath), fed by a natural spring, and an oven used for baking Sabbath bread, as well as another for matzo. As I listened to Madame Lévy’s eloquent history of this French synagogue, I was aware again of how Sephardic Jews are rekindling Jewish life in France. Since it was on Friday when we visited, Madame Lévy was anxious to go home to prepare her Sabbath dinner of vegetable soup, meatballs, and sautéed red peppers and haricots verts, the thin French green beans that are so absolutely delicious.

When I first ate this Sri Lankan pickle, known simply as Singhala Achcharu, it was made with green beans and carrots, but it may be made with other vegetables as well, including green papaya, found in East Asian and South Asian markets, and cauliflower. You may combine all these vegetables if you like, cutting each of them so the pieces are more or less the same size.

For vegetarians, these refreshing lentils, accompanied perhaps by Yogurt Relish with Okra and a bread, Indian or crusty Western, could make an entire meal. For non-vegetarians, meats or fish curries may be added.

South Indian vegetables can be very simply prepared. Here green beans are blanched and then quickly stir-fried with spices. These can be served with any meat, poultry, or fish dish, South Asian or Western.

This soup, mellowed with coconut milk, is as delicious as it is surprising in its final blend of silken textures.

Turlu is a Turkish dish of mixed seasonal vegetables cooked in olive oil. The winter turlu consists of root vegetables and beans.

Use olive oil and add lemon juice if you want to eat this cold.

Bulgur is delicious with lightly browned onion and cabbage. The green beans add a companionable flavor and texture.

An exercise in elegant simplicity, this salad makes a delicious contribution to a buffet of room-temperature dishes for company.

In almost any barley dish I make, whether soup, salad, or pilaf, my flavoring of choice is nearly always dill. This duo seems to have a natural affinity for each other.

Potatoes, barley, and buttermilk are a trio that I find blissfully refreshing in the summer, served cold in a soup.

Slicing the beef paper-thin when stir-frying will get the meat nice and crispy, so make sure your knife is sharp. If tangerines are not in season, oranges make a fine substitute and no one will be the wiser. The only weird ingredient is the black Chinese vinegar. It has a sweet, malted flavor that is very traditional in Chinese cooking. If you’re a purist about Chinese food, the black vinegar will be worth the trip to an Asian market. If you can’t find it, I’m not going to tell anyone if you substitute balsamic vinegar.

This visually stunning dish also packs a real flavor punch. Even people who don’t normally like tofu feast on this dish, though you can substitute beef, if you must. If you can get your hands on an Asian pear, use it here. Green beans are also good in this instead of the spinach. Serve this with Perfect Steamed Jasmine Rice (page 240).

This is my version of the classic French salad I enjoyed time and again in Nice. Roasting concentrates the flavor of fresh green beans.

This is a wonderful Greek-style one-dish meal or a side dish for a party. Roasting brings out the flavors of the vegetables. You can prepare all the vegetables except the potatoes ahead of time.