BB: French String Beans

I read last week about the Barefoot Bloggers Challenge … to cook from 1 to 5 Iva Garten recipes (all listed at the “challenge” link) and post them this week.  I checked over the recipes that had been chosen for the challenge, and they all sounded fantastic.  ‘Why not?’ I thought, ‘we have to eat’.  As usual, cooking and eating the recipes is not the difficult part … blogging them has turned out to be the challenge!!  I have had some major uploading problems recently, but with some late night work (when our satelite dish seems to get a stronger signal), I am beginning to catch up

I seldom buy green beans here … the usual variety that are available in the market have VERY strong threads in them, and are difficult to prepare.  And no matter what you do, you end up with little strings stuck between your teeth.  Anyway, I must have been meant to make these because they featured stringless green beans in the vegetable section of the Maxi-Bodega this week, really fresh nice ones, so I bought a pound with this recipe in mind.

French String Beans

Preface:

• I have no idea if the beans were French, but for sure they were not “string” beans …
• I didn’t have yellow bell peppers (although I will soon … I have a couple of plants of yellow bell peppers grown from some seeds that I took from a yellow pepper when I was visiting Mom in Canada, and there are a couple of ripening peppers already), so used only red.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound French string beans
• Kosher salt
• 1 red onion, large, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, large diced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, large diced
• Good olive oil
• Freshly grated black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Blanch the string beans in a large pot of boiling salted water for just 4 minutes.

Drain immediately and immerse in a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When they are cool, drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss the onion and bell peppers together with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes, tossing with a spatula from time to time to be sure the vegetables roast evenly.

Just before serving, reheat the string beans in a large saute pan drizzled with a little olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and arrange on a platter. Spoon the roasted vegetables over the string beans and serve hot or at room temperature.

Verdict:

 Excellent! Simple and fast to make.  Delicious!! The oven roasted vegies added an incredible burst of flavour to the crunchy green beans. This recipe has gone into the file to teach to the cook at Gringo Perdido.