Delicate French green beans, or hericots vert, nicely complement a pork centerpiece.
Photo by Iuliia Nedrygailova
Serves 8–10
1 ½ pounds haricots verts, ends trimmed
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter
2–3 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon all-purpose seasoning
Squeeze lemon juice, optional
Lemon zest, optional
Blanch beans in a large pot of boiling salted water, over medium-high heat, for 1 ½ minutes. Alternately, beans may be steamed instead of boiled. Drain immediately and immerse in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Set aside until ready to finish preparation. This step can be done a day ahead. Store beans in fridge in a zip-top bag.
Heat oil and butter in a very large sauté pan or cast-iron skillet over medium heat and sauté the shallots for 5 to 10 minutes, tossing occasionally until lightly browned. Add beans to the shallots and add seasoning and the optional lemon juice and zest. Stir and heat only until beans are hot.
Chef’s tips:
Haricots verts versus traditional green beans. Haricots verts are simply a different variety of green beans. They are long, thin, more tender and cook in much less time than it takes to cook traditional green beans.
If using traditional green beans, blanch beans for 3 minutes, and use yellow onions instead of shallots.
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