Heading into 2012 means shedding a few holiday pounds that Mike and I accumulated on the “experiment” (see his blog) we undertook. So for the next several weeks we will be trudging down the nutritional holy road of near-abstinence from carbs and total abstinence from that carbohydrate gateway drug, alcohol. It’s only day 5 and we’re already feeling a world better and lighter and sleeping more soundly. Normally, we’d have gotten with the program on January 2, but this year we didn’t get started in earnest until January 9, because of a big dinner party commitment we’d accepted down in LA (that included some very nice wines) that we didn’t want to miss out on.

But now that we’re committed to the journey, I’m busy looking for easy, savory recipes, particularly for acceptable side dishes, that will keep us on the path and still satisfy. And I ran across one in my clip file that is quite simply delicious. It appeared in a column by Lee Svitak Dean titled Flavors of Fall picked up from McClatchy a couple of years ago in our local daily bugle and I clipped it and put it away to try and then completely forgot about it. I tried it the other night and it is, to quote Rachael Ray, YUM-O. As Ms. Dean says, they taste like green french fries! Here it is:

ROASTED GREEN BEANS
From Come One Come All, by Lee Svitak Dean
Serves 6

Why is it that the concept of roasted beans sounds so foreign? These are wonderful, inspired by those served at 20.21, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. They remind me of green French fries. The beans can be roasted at whatever temperature your oven is already set, if you are cooking something else at the same time.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 pound. fresh green beans, ends trimmed, if desired
Olive oil
Coarse salt
Freshly cracked pepper (tricolor peppercorns look particularly nice)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (see Note).

2. Toss in olive oil and place in baking dish. Roast in oven for 15 to 20 minutes or so, until the beans are cooked through. They will have shriveled slightly.

3. Remove from oven and sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

6 Comments

  1. These sound delicious. Will be trying them this week. I also had to get serious after committing sins over the last 2 weeks of the year. Have already dropped 5 pounds…YEA. Always looking for new recipes to try.

  2. You can do pretty much the same thing with asparagus spears, with equally delicious results. Alternatively, they can be grilled if you can keep them from falling through!

  3. Thanks Dr. Eades: One of the staples in our home of low carb are fresh green beans cooked ina heavy metal pan under medium high heat with peanut oil or an oil that can handle it until the beans are shriveled and browned, while being seasoned with salt, cracked pepper, and on occasion, garlic powder or red pepper. Got the idea from Dana Carpender’s book. Same concept.

  4. These! Are! Great! My biggest challenge with avoiding carbs is my love for that crunchysaltygreasy combination that I always thought I could really only find in french fries. Clearly I was wrong! Thanks for the recipe, Dr. Eades!

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