String Beans with Sauteed Tomatoes & Garlic
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh green beans trimmed
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
- 3 cloves garlic slivered
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the beans for 4 to 5 minutes. I used a strainer to hold the string beans so I could just drop them in and pull them out. While the beans are blanching in the boiling water, add some ice to a bowl and fill three quarters with water.
- When the beans are done blanching, remove from boiling water and immediately transfer to the bowl of ice water. This is called "shocking," and will stop the cooking process and retain the color of the beans. Once the beans are cool, drain and reserve.
- Heat a saute pan big enough to hold all the string beans. Add the oil and when hot, saute the garlic and tomatoes over medium heat for 2 minutes, being sure not to burn the garlic. If the garlic does start to burn, remove it from the heat immediately while keeping the garlic moving in the pan with a wooden spoon.
- Add the string beans and stir together with the tomatoes and garlic. You are just trying to warm up the beans and combine flavors.
- Season with salt and serve.
Notes
The original recipe calls pepper flakes to give the beans an extra little flavor but my wife and kids would not eat them with pepper flakes so you decide.
These string beans were so good, my daughter requested we serve them on Thanksgiving. A great testimony for this recipe.