Green Bean

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from The Swiss Secret for Optimal Health: Dr. Rau's Diet for Whole Body Healing, by Thomas Rau, M.D., and Susan Wyler. A play on green beans in peanut sauce, this is a tantalizing salad your whole family will love. If you have no digestive problems, enliven to taste with crushed hot red pepper.

Blue Lake is a stringless variety found at farmers' markets and specialty foods stores. Others work well, too, as long as they're fresh and tender.

Bahmi goreng You'll be hard-pressed to refuse seconds of this irresistible stir-fry. Tender Chinese egg noodles, crisp green snow peas, and Chinese long beans mingle with plenty of rich, garlicky sauce. Cubes of tofu and shredded omelet add even more texture.

An unusual combination of flavors — sweet, savory, and briny.

This tortilla casserole is a great holiday dish to prepare when you want to use up leftovers. Miguel uses shredded leftover turkey as well as whatever vegetables remain from the holiday feast. It is a reliable dish for brunches or luncheons, paired with a seasonal salad. The tangy tomatillo sauce in this dish can also be used in recipes for other chilaquiles as well as Enchiladas Verdes. Though often referred to as "green tomatoes," tomatillos are members of the gooseberry family.

Fish is a good choice for a quick meal, and preparing this sprightly dill sauce from the pan juices (rather than using a stock) will really save you time.

Baby beets, which are roughly the size of a large marble, are sweeter than mature beets and cook more quickly.

This fresh and sophisticated dish would be a delicious vegetarian entrée for two—just add rice. Look for curry paste and coconut milk in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

This gorgeous winter salad would go well with the Mediterranean Supper Omelet. The seasoned rice vinegar takes candied walnuts from ubiquitous to inspired.

A far cry from the crisp-tender green beans of recent fashion, this is a classic example of the popular Ottoman-era dishes called zeytinagli, in which vegetables are cooked for a long time in olive oil, then served at room temperature so that the flavors are at their peak.

An Eastern-inspired spiced butter makes filet mignon even juicier than usual. Artichokes and haricots verts, cooked separately and then baked together, taste luxuriously rich in a way that complements the meat nicely.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Feast: Food to Celebrate Life, by Nigella Lawson. Strictly speaking, I don't think of this as a casserole, but I know that this is the traditional nomenclature; and, besides, I do sometimes serve the beans in one so it seems silly to quibble. This is another recipe I'd never have thought of adding to my Christmas till I started cooking for Thanksgiving, but I love its fresh, citrussy crunch. Actually, all I've done is bring on board an amplification of the way my mother always cooked green beans: just plenty of butter, plenty of pepper, and vicious amounts of lemon.

These are delicious warm or at room temperature—especially convenient when you're cooking for a crowd.

This versatile side dish is part of a menu chef Kent Rathbun created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

Liberate your green beans from casserole purgatory with a lively mix of butter, ginger, and lemon zest. It's a refreshing departure from a plate heaped with heavy fare.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Ted Allen's The Food You Want to Eat. For Allen's tips on throwing a Thanksgiving party, click here. This is another long-cooking method for cooking beans, not for the crisp-vegetable crowd. The shallots get very sweet with roasting. Add a squeeze of lemon or a little vinegar if you like, or toss in some chopped thyme.

Fork to the bottom of your bowl and you'll put away six servings of veggies! You can thank Michael Dunn, chef at Yankee Pier Santana Row in San Jose, California.