Discover Real Green Beans
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These and other round-podded beans are the best types for eating raw, or you can blanch them by plunging the beans into boiling water for 30 seconds, then cooling them in ice water — a process that stabilizes their vitamins and color (most purple-podded beans turn green when fully cooked). Handled this way, round-podded beans make great additions to salads (including pasta or potato salad), or you can pair them with a creamy dip for a light snack or appetizer. If you prefer your beans fully cooked, you won’t have to wait long for round-podded beans, which finish cooking after only 10 to 15 minutes at a slow simmer.
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Two off-species of beans fit into the round-podded category: heat-tolerant yard-long or asparagus beans, which are the same species (Vigna unguiculata) as black-eyed peas and purple hull peas (a type of Southern field pea); and runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus), which are more popular for their pretty flowers than for their beans. Exuberant ‘Liana’ and other yard-long beans must have hot weather and a sturdy trellis, so they’re a great choice in climates where summers get so hot that regular beans drop their blossoms in protest. Runner beans prefer temperatures on the cool side, and the beans toughen up fast, so they must be picked when they’re young and tender. In warm climates, runner beans often bloom all summer, then wait until fall to begin setting pods.
Flat-podded Beans
The most famous of all flat-podded beans is ‘Romano,’ an Italian heirloom pole bean that has now been bred into bush forms including ‘Roma II’ and ‘Gina’ (green pods) and ‘Romano Gold’ (yellow pods). The majority of flat-podded green beans are pole beans, including heavy-bearing ‘Kwintus’ and many others. Seed catalogs often describe these varieties as stringless, but most of them do develop strings as the pods begin to mature. Their flavor and texture changes too — often for the better — so these beans can be taken in two different directions in the kitchen. You can pick very young pods and handle them like round-podded beans, or let them hang on the vine until the seeds begin to bump up. At this more advanced stage of ripeness, flat-podded beans deliver a meaty, yet tender, texture and satisfyingly rich flavor after they are simmered an hour or so. You can add bacon or other meat to slow-cooked green beans, or try chopped onion and salt and pepper for a vegetarian option.
If you want to can a bumper crop of beans, flat-podded beans’ tolerance of prolonged cooking counts in your favor. Because green beans are a low-acid food, they must be processed in a pressure canner; this process can seriously overcook more delicate round-podded beans. Flat-podded beans also can be blanched or fully cooked before being packed into freezer containers.
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