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Green Beans
 Green Beans
© Denzil Green
The more slender the beans are, the more tender they will be. If you can see the beans through the pod, the beans were left on the vine too long and will be woody. If no one's watching, snap a bean in half: if they're fresh, they will distinctly "snap".
When buying fresh Green Beans, pick bright coloured, firm ones, and leave the faded, limp ones behind.
Frozen Green Beans are absolutely as good as the fresh ones; in fact, many times they are fresher than the sad, limp things seen on offer that are anything but "fresh".
Cooking Tips
Green Beans need to be cooked in boiling water. Green Beans are immature beans in an edible pod. Bean pods, as they mature get woody, and even if the beans are young like Green Beans usually are, they still have that woody substance in them called "lignin". Microwaving just doesn't seem to really soften them properly, nor does steaming. And in boiling them, 4 or 5 minutes doesn't really develop the taste. (Most people will tell you to boil or steam them for 5 minutes; part of this over-reaction we still have to our mothers' overcooking.) I'm going to be really radical here, and admit that I think they need about 10 minutes in boiling water. Mind you, it doesn't have to be water. You can braise them in say, stewed tomatoes, with some onions and peppers, the way the Italians do, and the beans seem to absorb all the flavour in the sauce; you would braise them for at least 45 minutes until the sauce reduces and thickens. (It is fine to just nuke frozen string beans).
Before using fresh Green Beans, wash, top and tail them. It should be no longer necessary to "string" them, but if you can detect strings, pull them off after you have topped and tailed the beans.
(I then toss the discard cuttings into a small saucepan covered with some water and simmer them a bit, then strain them out, bin them and freeze the stock, combined with the water I boiled the beans in -- but if you have a life, you don't need to go this far.)
When beans are sliced length-wise into thin strips, this is known as French or julienne-style. If you cut your beans this way, boil them for a few minutes less.
Substitutes
Yellow Beans; Runner Beans; other types of podded beans such as fresh Romano.
Nutrition
Per cup, cooked or raw, 40 calories. Good source of potassium and vitamin A.
Equivalents
1 pound Green Beans = 450g = 30 - 40 beans = 3 1/2 cups untrimmed = 3 cups (14 oz / 400g ) topped and tailed = 2 3/4 cups chopped.
Storage
Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days tightly wrapped in a plastic bag.
Freezing: Wash the beans, top and tail them. Cut them up, and blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes (no more!) Plunge into very cold water to cool them, then drain well, pack and freeze for up to 6 months.
History
Green Beans are native to South America. When they were brought back by explorers and botanists began promoting them, they were accepted quite easily by Europeans because they were similar to something they already had -- Broad Beans.
Until a century ago, these beans had tough strings along the side that you had to pull or "snap" off before cooking -- hence the older names of "String Beans" and "Snap Beans". Today, most of the ones you'll find in stores are almost all stringless. They've been bred that way, and the bean industry now wants us to call them "Green Beans" to move away from the connotations of the older names.
Literature & Lore
Julia Child lifted a green bean from its boiling water and tasted judiciously. "Still crunchily underdone," she sniffed, tossing it back into the pot. "Some old biddy once said if you boil beans quickly this way, they'll lose some of their vitamins. I say, if you're worried about that, eat more beans." -- Patterson, Suzy. Vacation doesn't mean getting away from food. Charleston, West Virginia: Sunday Gazette-Mail. Sunday, 3 September 1978. Page 83.
Language Notes
In England, these are called "French Beans".
Also called:  Snap Beans
String Beans Phaseolus vulgaris (Scientific Name) Haricot Vert, Mangetouts (French) Grüne Bohnen (German) Fagiolini, Mangiatutto (Italian) Ejotes (Spanish)
See Also
Purple Wax Beans, Wax Beans
Other entries for Green Beans
Adour Beans, Blue Lake Green Beans, Delinel Beans, Emerite Beans, Filet Beans, Green Beans, Maxibel Beans, Montpellier Beans, Provider Beans, Red Triumph Beans, Slenderette Beans, Stortino di Trento Beans
Other entries for Beans
Adzuki Beans, Anasazi Beans, Apache Beans, Appaloosa Beans, Aramis Beans, Aunt Emma's Beans, Baccicia Beans, Baked Beans, Bayo Beans (Louisiana), Black Beans, Black Nightfall Beans, Bleu du Lac St-Jean Beans, Broad Beans, Brown Rice Beans, Bush Beans, Canary Beans, Chana Dal, Chickashaw Beans, Chickpeas, Chinese Long Bean, Cow-Itch Beans, Cowpeas, Cranberry Beans, Crochu de Savoie Beans, Dainagon Beans, Dolico Veneto Beans, Dragon Tongue Beans, Dry Beans, European Soldier Beans, Falcon Rice Beans, Flageolet Beans, Flor de Junio Beans, Flor de Mayo Beans, Fortin Family Beans, Fradinho Beans, French Fillet Beans, Garboncito Beans, Garrofo Beans, Good Mother Stallard Beans, Great Northern Beans, Green Flageolet Beans, Green Rice Beans, Hopi Black Pinto Beans, Jackson Wonder Beans, Kahnawake Mohawk Beans, Kunde Beans, Lablab Beans, Lima Beans, Lupini Beans, Madeira Beans, Magpie Beans, Mexican Bayo Beans, Moth Beans, Mung Beans, Navy Beans, Nodak Beans, Pebble Beans, Peruano Beans, Pigeon Peas, Pink Beans, Pinto Beans, Pole Beans, Rattlesnake Beans, Red Ball Beans, Red Kidney Beans, Red Nightfall Beans, Refugee Beans, Rice Beans (Asian), Rice Beans, Rio Zappe Beans, Romano Beans, Runner Beans, Sangre de Toros Beans, Sator Beans, Seluga Beans, Shelling Beans, Soybeans, Tarahumara Canario Beans, Tepary Beans, Tiger's Eye Beans, Tolosana Beans, Toscanelli Beans, Trout Beans, Tweed Wonder Beans, Vallarta Beans, Wax Beans, Wild Goose Beans, Winged Beans, Witkiem Beans, Zolfino Pratomagno Beans
Other entries for Legumes
Lentils, Peas
Related Recipes
Bean, Bacon and Potato Salad, Green Bean & Pesto Linguine, Green Beans in Blue Cheese Sauce, Green Crunch Pasta, Polpettone di Fagiolini, Polpettone di Fagiolini, Squash and Bean Curry
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