Anyway, Thanksgiving is not only about the Turkey. The side dishes are also very important and often neglected!
In Brazil we eat a lot of green beans, in lots of dishes but especially in salads. I confess I was never crazy about them… In fact, my mom might be reading this post now and thinking: “What the heck?!? You hate vagem (which is the name for green beans in portuguese)!”. But I don’t hate them anymore, Mom, because of Thanksgiving! I gotta give it to Americans, they make green beans way better than the Brazilians. I am often saying that Brazilian food is better, but this time I need to bow down to the real Green Beans masters!
But today I just went to the market and got two gigantic handfuls of the “mountain”, which totaled about a pound! I didn’t even have to sort through them and only found one or two bruised ones when I washed them. So I can say I’m in green beans heaven! Washed them, quickly cooked them in salted boiling water (just ’til they are tender but still crisp), sautéed in olive oil with butter and garlic and topped with garlicky almonds! Holy Green Beans! I wanna stick my face into the bowl and eat them all by myself! Why did I have to get married? WHYYYYYYYY??? Now I have to share them with my husband! :( (And by share I mean let him eat 3/4 of the whole thing.) – While I write this, I hear the sound of the hammer coming from our bedroom, where he is assembling our new Ikea dresser by himself… And now I feel extra guilty! I think I’m going to go there surprise him with some of the green beans!
In a large pot with salted boiling water, cook the green beans for 3 minutes.
Immediately drain and transfer them to a bowl with iced water to stop the cooking process.
In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil and sauté 1 clove of minced garlic. Add the almonds and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Reserve.
In that same skillet, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp of olive oil with the butter and sauté the other 2 cloves of garlic. Add the green beans and toss them with the garlic/butter mixture and let them fry lightly until crisp, bright green and maybe even lightly browned in some spots.
Transfer the green beans to a serving dish and sprinkle the almonds.
Mmm yummy! This is a perfect side dish for Thanksgiving. Here is Canada Thanksgiving is going to be this Monday.
I love green beans and this is such a great simple way to cook them – lovely, Olivia!
I love coming across new and delicious ways to cook simple veggies. You can definitely consider I will be recreating the recipe! Thanks for the idea Olivia!