Roasted Green Beans

Adding a blog post on green beans because my aunt asked this week if I ever roasted them, and I couldn’t believe I’d never blogged it!

Plus, it’ll allow me to get rid of this one diet cookbook I’ve got - the diet’s not a good one, an elimination diet which are never balanced and rarely healthy - but it’s got my oven temp and cooking times for roasting green beans! The only recipe I still use out of this thing!

So. Roasting green beans. I roast them pounds and pounds at a time, because green beans are nice and healthy - and incidentally, good for virtually any diet you’re on. For me? Green beans have no calories.

I put servings in individual tupperwares in the fridge on the weekends, and just grab one every day for lunch or dinner. It can’t be any easier to eat healthy on a busy weeknight!

I roast them at 425. Preheat your oven while you’re prepping the beans.

Trim them up; cut off any bad ends and cut them into bite-size.

You’ll want to coat a sheet pan or baking sheet (depending on how many beans you’ve got) with olive oil pan spray. Spread the beans out, spray the tops of them with the pan spray; turn them with a spatula and spray them again, once or twice, until they’re all coated.

Then I salt them. Pretty heavily, personally, green beans are one of the only things I salt! (The others are my roasted Brussels sprouts and scrambled eggs, if you’re curious — )

I’ve never pepper’d them, but if anybody wants to give them some fresh ground pepper, too, let me know how that turns out and I’ll edit to add it!

Ready to go in the oven~~

Roast at 425 for 25 minutes, turning about three times.

You goal is not tender-crisp, here. Tender-crisp is great for veggies, and I cook many things many ways to tender-crisp: but when you are roasting at high heat, tender-crisp is not what you’re going for. Your goal is to get them TASTING like they’ve been roasted at high heat!

See the first photo, up top. Some of them are even starting to carmelized, you see? They’re 100% ALL the way done, not tender-crisp at all.

ROASTED GREEN BEANS

Fresh green beans (I’m using four pounds)

Olive oil pan spray

Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 425.

Trim beans and cut to bite size. Prepare your sheet pan or baking sheet with pan spray. Put beans on sheet pan; coat with pan spray, turning once or twice. Add salt to taste.

Roast for 25 minutes, turning two or three times.

Homemade Refried Beans

These take a while, because you’ve got to soak them and then leave them cooking in the crockpot all day - but it’s extremely little hand’s-on time. And SOOO worth it!

The night before, you’re going to want to put your beans to soak. Look through them carefully to pull out any little bits of rock or grit that made it into the bag: I pour them from the bag into my hand over a bowl, a few at a time, and then drop them into the bowl and pour some more into my hand. It goes quicker than it sounds!

Cover them with water and set them out of the way.

The next morning, drain the beans in a colander. Put beans and all remaining ingredients into a Crockpot and set to high. Cook 6-8 hours.

Turn off the Crockpot and let the beans cook slightly. I actually ran out of time to take care of mine, so they cooled in the fridge overnight. Use an immersion blender to blend everything in the crockpot together.

This recipe makes enough to use some and freeze some, for me. The beans freeze well!

HOMEMADE REFRIED BEANS

1 lb bag dried pinto beans (2 1/2 C)

5 C water

4 T Orrington Farms broth base or 6 chicken bouillon cubes

2 T onion powder 

3 T minced garlic

1 T ground cumin

The night before, put beans on to soak as described above.

In the morning, drain beans. Put drained beans and the rest of the ingredients in a Crockpot. Set the heat to High and let the beans cook 6-8 hours.

When done, use an immersion blender to blend all ingredients together. Serve hot.

Broccoli Pasta with Greek Yogurt Sauce

This one wins the kitchen today, here: this is truly one of the easiest sauces EVER.

BROCCOLI PASTA WITH GREEK YOGURT SAUCE

16 oz brown rice pasta

4 cups broccoli florets, trimmed

6 oz Neufchâtel cheese (low fat cream cheese), softened

1/2 C nonfat plain Greek yogurt

1 T garlic powder, or to taste

Parsley and fresh Parmesan for garnish

Start pasta water. 

Steam broccoli, tightly covered, in the microwave three minutes. Stir. Cover again and steam another three minutes.

When pasta water boils, cook pasta according to package directions. When pasta is done, reserve 2 C pasta water; drain.

Cut softened cream cheese into a four-cup measure. Add yogurt and garlic powder. Add 1.5 C reserved pasta water, and whisk until smooth. Toss with pasta and broccoli, adding more pasta water if sauce is too thick.

Serve topped with parsley and Parmesan.

Servings: 7

Calories per serving: 310