Cranberry Pecan Green Beans
Fresh green beans sautéed with Cranberry Honey Butter and tossed with toasted pecans.
Green beans are one of my standard Thanksgiving Side Dishes, and I'm reminded again how silly it seems to wait another 2 months in order to celebrate the harvest. By the time American Thanksgiving rolls around the only 'fresh' local vegetables are hardy greens like kale and long-storing winter squash and potatoes. Everything else has been put up. The Canadians have a better plan--have Thanksgiving in October, and do it on a Monday so you have an entire weekend to prepare the feast. None of this 'last minute rush around after work on Wednesday' craziness. No matter which day you're giving thanks for the harvest, here's a recipe for you.
The green beans have been plentiful this year in Ohio. From our farmers here in the SW corner of the state on up to Meghan's farmers in NE Ohio--lots and lots of green beans in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm shares.
On a whim I decided to combine some of my Cranberry Honey Butter with some of my copious volume of green beans. [I'll be honest, inspiration struck me when I opened the freezer door and a roll of cranberry honey butter fell out.] I thought it would look pretty with the bright green beans, so I whipped up a quick side dish.
To save time and dishes, I briefly cooked the green beans in the microwave and toasted the pecans in a dry skillet. Then it was a simple matter to assemble the finished dish. Try this one at home.
NOTE: I created this recipe to be gluten free through my choice of ingredients. Check labels to confirm that your products are also gluten free. Good sources for determining that your products are gluten free can be found here:
Cranberry Pecan Green Beans (serves 4-6)
4 cups green beans, trimmed to bite sized pieces
½ cup chopped pecans
2 Tablespoons Cranberry Honey Butter
salt and pepper to taste
In a microwave safe container, and with a Tablespoon or so of water, cook beans on full power for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside. In a medium (10 inch for me) dry skillet over medium heat, toast pecans in a single layer until fragrant. Remove from skillet and set aside. Melt cranberry butter in skillet, toss the cooked beans with the melted butter, and toss most of the toasted pecans with the flavored beans. Taste one, and add a bit of salt and pepper if you need. Garnish with the rest of the pecans. Serve hot.
Sometimes inspiration strikes out of the blue and sometimes it rolls out of the pantry and smacks you upside the head.
ReplyDeleteLet's move to Canada. At least for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Meghan,
DeleteYou know, we could arrange to be in Canada for Thanksgiving and then the following month head south for Second Thanksgiving.
I'd be up for that.
Love green beans and these look fabulous Kirsten. Thanks for stopping by our Happy Holidays Link Party - be sure to join us again this week (beginning on Saturday at 7 pm ET) and every week through the holidays.
ReplyDeleteLaura,
DeleteThanks for hosting!
Hmm, so this may be the recipe that causes me to release the fresh frozen green beans from the bondage of my freezer, where they have been since I overbought one sunny late summer afternoon at the farmers market. Don't have cranberry butter though, so I'll need 2 of your recipes, not just 1:)
ReplyDeleteLaura,
DeleteI'm always making you do extra. I'd apologize, but I'm good with it! I have such a hard time releasing veggies from freezer bondage while the markets are still open. I'm worried I won't have enough for winter.
Except beets. I'm never worried about having enough of those ;)
Thanks!
I agree, US Thanksgiving is far too late in the year for a harvest feast!
ReplyDeleteMary,
DeleteGreat minds think alike! One thing American Thanksgiving usually has going for it--it's usually COLD enough to want to eat a big turkey dinner! It was so hard to get in the mood in Hawaii!