Personally, I boil, or steam them,
and then drown them in butter,
and then add a TON of 'seasoned' bread crumbs.
And then, toss and serve.
OR, you can add your own seasonings to plain
bread crumbs.

I boil them until they are tender. I love slivered almonds with them or sometimes I saute fresh mushrooms and onions and the after the beans are done and drained I add the mushrooms and onions.
Joann

All of our family members would probably say their favorite is green beans cooked in ham or chicken broth with chopped cabbage and onions, small whole potatoes and chunks of ham. I season the broth with dried marjoram.

I have another green bean stew recipe in my other computer. I'll post it tonight.

I cook them as simply as possible - I boil them until just tender crisp. Give them a good dollop of butter and generous sprinkle of kosher salt and coarse black pepper. My MIL told me the best beans were canned beans...not...I can't stand mushy beans, they have to almost squeak when you eat them.

Here's a perfect coincidence ruthanna. I usually cook simply and believe in cooking beans fresh from the garden as Donna.in.Sask describes. I love the squeak comment Donna.

This morning around 11:30, my neighbor and I were talking about our gardens and I told her that my wife was getting tired of my beans. The neighbor said that she often made beans with ham hocks, potatoes, cabbage or kale; and a few hours later here you are with a post and picture of essentially her favorite bean recipe. I checked your bio and see you are from PA. I don't suppose you would be surprised to find that my neighbor is from Pittsburgh.

Dry fried? John L. posted a recipe recently that I use (and have used for years but don't know what it was called).
Basically, it's green beans browned in hot oil then all the usual Asian flavorings are added to taste.

In general though, I will almost always prefer something browned over not and deeply flavorful over delicate.

Steamed or boiled, topped with toasted almond slices and a dollop of sour cream,

I blanch them in a large quantity of salted water until they are bright green and al dente. I cool them quickly with cold running water and drain them. Just before serving I will give them a quick saute in butter with whatever seasonings I want (garlic, toasted almonds, shallots, etc.). It makes it easy for to time them just right to serve for a dinner party this way.

Eileen

Oh Ruthanna, that picture is a scene from my mother's kitchen. Mmmm, mmm. I love green beans and potatoes cooked with ham. Yummy.

For my self, i put them in a bowl a little water, shove them in the MW, push "vegetable," wait for the beep, then drain and eat. They are so good.

Ruthanna, that picture takes me back to wonderful childhood memories also. It's going to be WFD one day this week. Thanks for the reminder of this yum way to cook green beans. I've been roasting them too long and it's gotten boring.

/tricia

If they are small and freshly picked from the garden, I toss them with a little olive oil and cook them quickly so they are still tender crisp. (My beans didn't do well at all this year.)
If they are older beans, I cook them with bacon and onion and let them cook a long time......Southern style is what my friend calls them.
If I don't have bacon, I use some ham hocks.

It's funny you asked this because I just cooked some for dinner. I string, break and wash. Put them in the pressure cooker with new potatoes, bacon grease, salt and pepper. I bring them to full pressure and then turn down to cook for 5 minutes and they are done. Keep in mind I'm from Ky so we like our beans cooked, not blanched or al dente. When my daughter got her first appartment I had to get her a pressure cooker just so she could cook green beans.

We just picked up 1 1/2 bushels of green beans today. Kim is already prepping them for canning tomorrow. Last years I did 41 qts.... may end up with more this year. It's our favorite vegetable to can.

Here are some of the ways I like to fix them, you can use fresh or canned. I don't use recipes for things like this, I just wing it for the quantity I want to make.

~ Southern style long cook with bacon, onions and a little garlic, sometimes I use Canadian bacon
~ saute with tomatoes, onion, sweet corn and a little basil
~ creamed with potatoes, onion and to this I will often add ham or bacon if handy
~ to cooked hot beans add Parmesan cheese and butter
~ to cooked beans add slivered or sliced almonds
~ season cooked beans with soy sauce, fresh ginger, sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
~ add pre made BBQ sauce to partially cooked beans and simmer to finish cooking

Roxie, our dog, prefers her beans plain with butter, but she will eat them any way they are fixed!

Nancy

Tennessee green beans are similar to ruthanna and bryansda.....cooked well. I cook mine with salt pork, bacon or sometimes ham and barely covered with water (with the lid on), for about 3-4 hours or until the water has almost cooked away. Sometimes I put potatoes in with them for the last hour or so.

I like mine cooked like jae_tn fixes hers, with some onion too.

Sue

I'm not from Tennessee, although my husband is, but I like green beans cooked until they are very done, I don't want them crunchy or squeaky or "crisp tender". It's not a salad, it's beans! Elery says one thing you'll never hear anyone in his family say is "I think you cooked them beans too much". LOL.

I also like them like Ruthanna, cooked with potatoes and with smoked pork hocks.

Annie

I usually use frozen green beans. I saute some garlic in olive oil, add the beans and cook them through. Toss in a little lemon juice or a little crumbled feta at the end.

It all depends. Sometimes they are tough and sometimes not.

3 minutes in a pressure cooker for the tough ones, and stir fry the tender ones.

dcarch

Soak them in a sugar/salt/cold water bath 1st. Drain and pat dry then stir fry very hot and remove ..do 1/2 the garlic and ginger .. amount depends on how many beans......then add beans and then at the last second add the rest of the garlic and ginger...and a splash of sesame oil and a tbsp of sesame seeds. Oh my...nothing better. c

We don't care for green beans, unless they are cooked the way I do it. These we love.

Simmer in a cup of water and some olive oil with onion wedges until slightly tender, 8 minutes. Uncover and let the water evaporate, then sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and serve.

I like green beans cooked to a medium consistency - not crispy and not cooked for hours to a salty mush. I simmer the stew in the above pic for about 30 minutes.

My favorite seasoning for cooked yellow beans is browned butter mixed with a little coarse grain mustard.

BEEF AND GREEN BEAN STEW - 4 servings

1 lb. lean beef
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, diced
1 cup tomato juice
2 Tbs. lime juice
1/4 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbs. chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound fresh green beans, tipped and cut

Cut the beef into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Brown the meat cubes in the oil in a Dutch oven. Stir in remaining ingredients except green beans. Lower heat to simmering. Cover tightly and simmer over low heat until beef is tender - about one hour. Stir in green beans. Cover and cook five minutes. Uncover and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until green beans are tender-crisp and liquid is reduced to a thick sauce.

For fresh or fresh-frozen beans, DSs love them stir-fried, i.e. dry-fried in a bit of oil over high heat in the wok--range hood on high & a spatter screen req'd--chopped garlic added at the very end. Sometimes I omit the garlic & season w/ a bit of freshly grated nutmeg. 85% of the time, this is the way I prepare them w/ either fresh picked beans from my garden, frozen ones or the frozen filet beans from Aldi (which are very good, BTW.)

So, I've about given up on canning beans although I do have a few left on the shelf that I canned a few years ago.

Personally, I love them cooked southern style with a bit of onion, garlic, ham or bacon and 'new potatoes' (preferably baby reds.) I consider this a meal. Seldom make it because the rest of the family is less than enthusiastic about it.

'nother thing is that the beans I grow in Wisconsin don't taste like the beans I grew in Oklahoma. For some reason, southern grown beans have a much different, earthier flavor, so 'southern style' w/ northern beans just isn't the same as I remember. My northern grown beans have a much more delicate flavor and can be almost sweet to the taste. If you grew up eating southern beans, the northern ones are pretty blah. Takes a while to adjust to them, or so has been my experience. I've come to appreciate them but it's almost like they're two entirely different vegetables. (And it's not just a difference in varieties. Contenders grown in WI taste totally different from Contenders grown in OK.)

Another favorite of mine, a recipe my mom devised, is what she called 'Spanish green beans'. Fry some bacon or bacon pieces and add chopped onion & cook until the onion is translucent. Add to canned grean beans in a casserole dish and stir in either canned tomates or tomato sauce and bake. I like these when the weather turn cool.

PASTA SALAD with HERBS, GREEN BEANS, and FETTA

(source: Smith & Hawken - Gardeners' Community Cookbook)

Serves 6-8

Small, whole green beans and whole cherry tomatoes make this a really pretty salad. If your green beans are large, cut them in two-inch lengths before cooking; and if the cherry tomatoes are on the large side, cut them in half.

3/4 pound small green beans
3/4 pound pasta, preferably fusilli
2/3 c. olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 lg. clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 t. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1-1/2 c. cherry tomatoes, stemmed (about 8-ounces)
1/3 c. black olives (preferably oil-cured, pitted and cut into half)
2 T. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
2 T. chopped fresh chives
2 t. minced fresh oregano leaves
2/3 c. crumbled feta cheese

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the green beans and cook over high heat until slightly softened but still bright green, 3-4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the beans to a colander and set aside.

2. Bring the water in the pot back to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until slightly softer than al dente. Drain in the same colander with green beans, shake to dry a bit, and transfer the beans and pasta to a serving bowl. Set aside.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste to make the dressing.

4. Add the tomatoes, olives, herbs, cheese, and dressing to the beans and pasta. Toss to mix and serve right away.

ci_lantro, you're right, it is like two different varieties. Elery's sister grows the pink half runners and so do I. They just taste different, I don't know if it's the soil, or the climate, or that they grow faster here, but they definitely taste different. So does sweet corn.

I make many things (like green beans) in a way that Elery equates to "southern" or at least to Tennessee/Kentucky. That's because my Grandmother taught me to cook. She learned from her Stepmother, who was from Kentucky but moved to Ohio when she married Great-Grandfather. Many of the recipes and techniques I learned from here came north when Grandma did.

Annie

Glad to see some new ideas...we're inundated right now. Tonight it will be steamed filet beans with butter and a little fresh thyme.

Blanched and cooled cauliflower and green beans, marinated in some Italian dressing. I had some leftovers when I was on a freezing spree one year and the combination turned out to be one of our favorite salads.

They're good in tempura, too. Last year I was trying to copy PF Chang's crispy green beans and I'd found a recipe that we loved...baked with a sesame seed coating. Crispy and good with copycat PF Chang's green bean dipping sauce. Can I find the recipe or remember what I did? Noooooo....

Roasted with a little garlic and some olive oil. Steamed and cooled in pasta salad. In fresh pasta sauce with tomatoes. Pickled (I use dilly beans in potato salad instead of cuke pickles). In potato soup or minestrone.

Whenever we'd visit DH's Aunt Juanita she'd make her special beans. A quart of undrained beans and some chopped bacon, boiled until the liquid evaporated. Canned beans are a whole different animal...

I grew up with green beans boiled with bacon. They were soft and bacony and the flavor will surely remind me of childhood times. Trailrunner's version sounds very tasty.

Another idea is to let them dry out on the vine,
so the shucks are brown and brittle. Then harvest
them, and shuck them and use the dried beans in
chili this winter. I've done this before and
It's an option.

Fry bacon, break up the bacon an cook the beans in the bacon and bacon fat. I don't like green beans to be mushy but don't want them crunchy either. I want to be able to chew them a bit. And everyone knows, more bacon=more better!

I do what cynic does, though I'll often cut up the bacon with kitchen scissors before cooking. Sometimes they'll get a little chopped onion, too. I've also been known to thorw in cherry tomatoes, as well,

Well I am from Tennessee (winking attcha Annie!) and we do cook them forever along with loads of bacon. I can make them that way, but I won't eat them that way.

I soften them up (usually just boiled, but I may try microwave next time) and then sauted them in garlic flavored olive oil, last, sprinkle Montreal seasoning on them. Same as J Alexander's. Love their haricot vert!

I cook mine in a sauce of saute onions, lots of olive oil and tomato sauce. Sometimes I add some potatoes, sometimes zucchini, sometimes not. My kids LOVE it and they request leftovers in the frig on an ongoing basis. This is a very common recipe in Greek cooking.

Green beans are one of the few veggies that I prefer cooked past tender-crisp. If they're frenched I don't mind them a tad under-done and squeaky, but whole I want them cooked. Just cooked, that is, not killed. I find that green beans vary significantly in cooking time, so like Eileen I tend to boil them until al dente, shock them in cold water (I use an ice bath), then hold cold until ready to simply reheat for two or three minutes in whatever recipe I'm using, usually a simple one. Perfect.

Roasted is good, too.

I've never had home-canned green beans. If they're anything like commercially canned beans, I'm not interested. Looks like they're in season and on sale around here this week, so I might just have to can a jar or two and see for myself.

FOAS, I think it depends in part on the bean. I can Royal Burgundy because they stay firmer than the Blue Lake I used to grow.

I think home canned beans are nothing like the commercially available canned beans, but that could be just me. Well, not just me because the grandkids will eat "my" beans, but wouldn't touch canned beans from the store.

You do need a pressure canner to can beans, of course. I know older people who water bath canned beans for 6 hours or something, I can't imagine anything even being worth eating after that amount of time!

Annie

You do need a pressure canner to can beans, of course.

Um, of course. Guess I won't be finding out as soon as I hoped!

Fry up some sliced bacon, add green beans and toss in the fat, add a chopped onion, some garlic and cover with chicken stock. Simmer about an hour. Add a bunch of baby red potatoes and a little more stock, if needed to just cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer another hour to hour and a half. DH would eat these 3 times a week if he could.

Even tho I was raised in Tennessee, and I certainly have had the green beans as described, my mother never fixed them that way. We had frenched-style beans, perhaps a little overcooked, but only with a little butter and lemon.

I am amused at the idea of turning healthy green vegetables into sodium, cholesterol and fat laden dishes.

I cook them just a bit past squeaky.Then add a bit of butter, dried dill weed and salt and pepper.