Holiday Cooking: Thanksgiving & Christmas




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Green Beans with Yellow Pepper-Butter

Yeah, I know, when Thanksgiving rolls around it's time to whip out the green bean cassarole recipe or get "adventurous" with some Green Beans Almondine. While those standards taste good, and are a perfecly reasonable way of cooking grean beans, they are not the only easy green bean recipes around. So if you're in the mood to learn how to cook green beans a different way, read on. This sauteed green bean recipe is perfectly delightful and especially with the yellow pepper sauce, makes a colorful addition to the Thanksgiving meal. This recipe will work well with either French Green beans or Italian Green beans, just be sure to use fresh green beans because frozen beans don't have the necessary crispness .

In a small saucepan melt 1 tbsp butter or ghee. Add the shredded sweet pepper. Cook over medium-high heat for 4- 5 minutes or until pepper is crisp-tender. Set aside.

In a blender, bowl or food processor bowl, combine the 6 tbsp softened butter or ghee and the pine nuts. Cover; blend or process until almost smooth. Add cooked sweet pepper, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper. Cover; blend or process until almost smooth. Set aside.

In a covered saucepan, cook beans in a small amount of boiling water until crisp-tender (about 10-12 minutes, or microwave for a couple of minutes. Just don't overcook, because mushy green beans are not very appetizing!)

Add the sweet pepper strips the last 2-3 minutes of cooking. Drain the beans and sweet pepper strips then place in a serving bowl. Add the blended butter mixture; toss to coat.

Ingredients

1 tbsp/ ghee* or
lightly salted butter
1 medium yellow sweet pepper, coarsely shredded
6 tbsp. ghee or softened butter
1/4 c. pine nuts
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1-1/2 lbs. green beans, trimmed
1 large yellow sweet pepper, cut into thin strips

Makes 8 servings.


Ghee is Indian clarified butter. Ghee is available in most Indian specialty stores as well as many organic/health food type stores and markets. It is ideal for cooking because it does not burn unless heated to excess and can be kept indefinitely without refrigeration as long as it is covered and stored in a cool, dry location. In Aryurveda, ghee is believed to be a healing food, promotive of memory and intelligence and also the base for herbal ointments to treat burns, skin rashes. Ghee is considered good for all doshas (body types)however, Kapha types are warned not to overdo it.