French Beans with Artichoke Hearts

Ok. I heart this dish! I created this because there were two big bags of French Beans sitting in my fridge. I didn’t wanted to do beans subzi (just pure laziness of not wanting to cut the beans!!) Also they don’t come out great as would do with Indian style of beans. Then I remembered crispy green beans fry at TGIF. It was super tasty, but I wasn’t going to calorie load my green beans! Then peeking into pantry I eyed Artichoke hearts. I thought “Why not?” and started putting stuff together. It turned out super delicious with fresh taste of beans intact. Try it out and let me know if you liked it as much as we all did. This can be served as an appetizer or as a side to rice and daal.

Serves: 6 | Prep Time: 5 min. | Cooking Time: 15 min.

Ingredients:

French beans     – 1 Lb. (About 2 ½ cups)

Artichoke Hearts – 1 can

Onion               – 1 small (About ½ cup. Finely chopped)

Garlic               – 1 tbsp. (Finely chopped)

Cumin seeds     – ½ tsp.

Chinese Chili Garlic Paste – 2 tsp.

Olive Oil           – 2 tsp.

Salt                 – to taste

 Method of Preparation:

~ Heat a pot of water with salt to bring it to boil (around 4 cups).

~ Wash and trim the ends of beans. Cut them two inch long.

~ Put them in the boiling water and cook for about 7 minutes on high. (Until the raw smell of the beans goes away and little froth starts around the beans and settle in 2 minutes.) Do not overcook and make the beans soggy.

~ Drain the water and immediately rinse the beans with a cup of cold water. Keep it aside.

~ Drain the water from Artichoke hearts and fill it up with cold water. Keep it aside. (This takes out some of the vinegar in the artichokes. I washed and filled water twice.)

~ Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and garlic. Sauté for few seconds.

~ Add finely chopped onions and fry until onion starts to turn pink.

~ Add chili garlic paste. Sauté until everything blends in.

~ Drain the water out of artichoke & coarsely chop them. Add it to the fried onions.

~ Add salt and continue to cook for another 3 to 4 min. Switch off the heat.

 

~ Arrange the drained green beans in a serving dish. Evenly pour the onion/artichoke mix on top of the beans. Cover the serving dish with foil or plate. Let them hang out for at least 15 to 30 minutes.

~ Mix them well and serve it warm.

Tips:

French beans have less thread on the side than the green beans. So just trimming the edges is sufficient.

You can use microwave to cook beans, but sometime they tend to get collapsed if done on high.

On the side lines:

Asked my DH to give a name for this dish, so I can post it. He thought immensely for few minutes and said “Beans with Artichoke?” :o)