I have always loved green beans.
My mother used to fix them with bacon and onion, then finish them with cream and cheese (Velveeta).
I loved both the beans and the sauce – it was like cream of bean soup.
I don’t make green beans like that – for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the Velveeta. It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve had Velveeta. I have no idea if I would like the taste.
I remember it being a great cheese for melting. Then I remember it’s a ‘cheese product’ rather than a cheese.
And I live in France. France has rather a lot of different cheeses. I’m working on trying them all….
In the meantime, this is my absolute favorite way of cooking beans now – green, purple, or yellow.
Click here to Pin Sautéed Green Beans
PrintSautéed Green Beans
I use butter and olive oil together. I like the flavor of butter and the olive oil keeps it from getting too brown.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Vegetables
- Method: Skillet
Ingredients
- 8oz (250gr) green and purple beans (or all green), trimmed, cut
- 3 small shallots, peeled, cut in half
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 tsp butter
- handful green basil, chopped
- handful purple basil, chopped
Instructions
- Heat butter and olive oil in a small skillet.
- Add shallots and sauté briefly, 2 – 3 minutes.
- Add beans, cover and sauté over medium heat until tender, 7 – 10 minutes.
- Uncover, stir in herbs and serve.
Notes
Add salt & pepper to taste.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 recipe
- Calories: 121
- Sugar: 4.9 g
- Sodium: 9.3 mg
- Fat: 8.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 10.5 g
- Fiber: 3.6 g
- Protein: 2.6 g
- Cholesterol: 10.2 mg
Keywords: green beans, fresh herbs
If you want to be daring: Green Beans with Prosciutto & Garlic Chips
I always plant both green and purple beans. The purple beans have purple flowers and stems, adding a lovely contrasting color to the garden.
They turn green when cooked.
But they look so pretty in the basket, along with the green & purple basil.
Regarding my potager / veggie garden….
As usual, it isn’t a normal growing year. I’m starting to realize that ‘not normal’ is normal.
This year I have lots of big green leaves but nothing under them.
Look at all that lovely green!
I counted 2 butternut squash the other day.
I have 4 plants.
I ordered Delicata squash seeds from Amazon. They were listed as ‘American Delicata Squash’.
That’s all good as we don’t have the seeds here.
The packet came from China.
They are not Delicata squash. I have no idea what they are.
On the other hand don’t the Red Kuri and Green Hokaido plants look great?
There are 5 of each hiding under the leaves. I was expecting at least twice that many.
I’m going to be buying a lot of vegetables this year.
I love green beans prepared just about any way you can though there are a couple I draw the line at. I think one of my favorites are Southern style with bacon and shallots, slow simmered in a little chicken broth until the beans are very soft and all the flavors meld together. I like my collard greens the same way.
I ordered seeds for a specific sunflower variety from Amazon two years ago. When they came, the seeds were rather small but it was a variety I wasn’t familiar with so I thought, okay, we’ll go with it. The seeds of course, came from China. Everything comes from China now. I planted them and what I got wasn’t sunflowers but stinging nettles and I can’t get rid of them. I am not happy. It will be a long time before I make that mistake again. A very long time.
My little deck experiment is so-so with my plants. One tomato plant is barely producing, one has produced maybe 15 tomatoes and is now dying and my cucumber plant is the healthiest plant I’ve ever had, no powdery mildew at all, tons of flowers but only three cukes. Go figure. The grape tomato plant has been prolific.
I have nettles everywhere. They’re easy to pull out but impossible to get rid of. I can’t do anything with them in the summer unless it’s cool enough for long sleeves and pants…. which it rarely is.
I used to order the non-French seeds from a nursery in the U.K. but I can’t after Brexit. No more from Amazon, tho….
I like grape tomatoes, but never have planted them. Maybe next year.
Everything is dying now – too dry for too long and watering only does so much.
The thought of French cheeses and Velveeta even coming from the same dairy source is so far fetched isn’t it !!!! So far removed from each other , it’s laughable !
I’m not sure Velveeta comes from a dairy source…. lol
Those look wonderful!
J’adore green beans! I love them blanched, cooled and added to potato salad. I love them stir-fried. I love them steamed. I love them in Thanksgiving green bean casserole (with {gasp} home-made mushroom soup and {gasp some more} home-made fried onion topping).
But I’m not sure I would love the Velveeta sauce version now. I might have once. Velveeta was my secret vice. My father-in-law always had a box of Velveeta in his fridge (along with a dazzling array of really good French, English, Canadian, Swiss artisinal cheeses). Whenever we visited, I would have to make a Velveeta cheese omelette. So good!!
So good that after one of our visits to my parents-in-law’s house, we bought our own Velveeta. I finished off the box with relish – and rather a lot of guilt. It was some months later before I caved in and bought more Velveeta. The. Recipe. Has. Changed. Someone “fixed” something. I think I can guarantee that you would not like Velveeta cheese now. I don’t…. Thank goodness. We can safely return to eating real cheese and not having to hide nasty processed cheese-food secrets.
Ah, the mushroom soup – with little eraser heads. Never could stand it. But Velveeta made great grilled cheese sandwiches as well as macaroni and cheese (before that got to cult status).
I think the food police would run me out of France if I tried to introduce ‘cheese product’ – Velveeta and any cheese that comes in a spray can.
Velveeta comes in a spray can? Ewwwww!! Run for the hills! Run for the hills!
We did….