This is simple, down-home food. It was one of my favorites growing up and still is now. It's simple and a really great way to get kids to eat veggies - the beans taste too good to resist. I like this best served exactly like Mom used to do it - ham sliced on a platter, beans and potatoes swimming in a rich broth, and sides of biscuits or rolls, homemade jam, and marinated fresh vegetables (what I call quick pickles) to complete the meal.I'll list the ingredients exactly like I made this for dinner tonight. You can vary the amounts of everything to suit your family needs.
Quick Pickles:
Put the ham in a roasting pan and add water to come about half-way up on it. Roast it at 325 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours. Check the water periodically to make sure it's not cooking dry. You may have to add a little more water, but don't add too much because you want the richest broth you can get.
While it is roasting, prepare the quick pickles. You can use any veggies you like. Sliced peppers taste good and yellow peppers make the pickles even prettier. Hot peppers add a little zing, and are especially good with the grapes (grapes add a really nice note - vinegary vegetables, then the sweet crunch of the grapes. Adding them is the only thing I change from Mom's meal).
Cut them into bite size pieces. Put them in a bowl. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a jar with a tight lid. Shake them until the sugar dissolves, then pour over the veggies. Stir them from time to time to make sure they all get time in the marinade.
When the ham is done, take it out of the broth and wrap it in aluminum foil. This will keep it nice and hot until you serve it. Put the prepared green beans in the broth, and add water to come close to covering the beans. Taste it, and add enough ham bouillon to make it taste really good. I never add salt to this - the ham and the bouillon are salty enough. (If you haven't tried ham bouillon, you should. It is really good to have on hand for flavoring bean soups, vegetables, and all sorts of things).
On the stove top, put the pot on medium heat and bring the beans to a nice simmer. Peel and cut the potatoes, and add them to the pot. Put the biscuits or rolls in the oven. The beans, potatoes, and biscuits should be done at the same time, but if the biscuits are done first, take them out of the oven and cover them with foil or a clean dish towel to keep them hot.
While everything is finishing, drain the marinade off the veggies and put them in a nice serving bowl. In such a short time, they will have a nice pickly taste, but still have their own fresh taste, and be nice and crunchy.
Source: Vicy, my Mom
By Free2B from North Royalton, OH
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This is real comfort food. The recipe calls for a full pound of bacon - you can cut that down if you like. I make it with the whole pound since we rarely eat bacon.
In a large pot, cook the bacon to render the fat and then remove the bacon to paper towels to drain. Or, if you have bacon fat that you've saved, heat a 1/2 cup until sizzling.
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I really need ideas for using up canned green beans.
Sandra from PA
I don't think they taste that great unless they are home-canned. I've used them in green bean casserole (the kind w/ cream of mushroom) or in soups and stews. I have used an immersion blender and ground them up in soups like split pea or potato--it makes it green and healthy-looking!
I don't really like the taste of hot canned green beans. I prefer them cold or room temp. To make a quick salad, I drain a can of GBs and toss with a small amount of bottled salad dressing (Italian or Balsamic is good). A little bit of thinly sliced onion is good in this, too.
there is a recipe for fried breen beans. we tried them, they were pretty good.
Cheesy Green Bean Casserole
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup of shredded chedder cheese
1/2 bottle of hormel real bacon bits (red label)
3 cans green beans (drained)
1 can chedder french fried onions
In small sauce pan heat soup, cheese and bacon pieces on medium/low heat. Stir until cheese is melted. Drain the juice from green beans, and put them in an oven safe dish.
Pour soup mixture on top of green beans, and stir until evenly coated.
Top with chedder french fried onions, and bake at 300 degrees until onions are slightly browned.
I also use crushed ritz crackers with melted butter poured over them (maybe like 2-3 T butter to 1 sleeve crackers) for a topping instead of the Frenches onions!
BBQ Green Beans
2-3 cans green beans
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 chopped onion
1 cup ketchup
dash of salt
dash of pepper
1/2 lb. fried bacon crumbled
Mix all ingredients in crockpot except bacon bits. Cook for 4-5 hours on low. Right before serving add bacon pieces.
Use them in three or four bean salad.
When I want to use some canned green beans & have something special, I put in about 2 cans of green beans, a dash of pepper, about 1/4 to 1/2 pound of sliced bacon, really thin sliced, cross way of strip, 1/2 of a finely chopped onion, then ad about 1/2 can of chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil & simmer for about 40min. When I don't have fresh onions, I use chopped, dried, which I keep in the cabinet. It is really a fast recipe, which tastes like you spent a long time on them & they are delicious.
As has already been posted, green bean casserole, but put chunks of turkey or cubed, pre-cooked chicken breast. Add some crushed croutons, particularly if you can find them 10 for $10, if you'd like to avoid the traditional fried onion topping. Just put the croutons in a plastic bag and smack it a few times with a frying pan so you have smaller morsels. Use another soup instead of cream of mushroom. Cream of chicken, cream of celery and cream of broccoli are very nice with it, and throw in some cut up broccoli to get even more green veggies past the palate of fussy eaters, some onion, chopped celery, and even carrots are also terrific.
This is a good and cheap one, though it takes a little time. Cook a hamhock or ham shanks for 1 hour on a low simmer in a Dutch oven pot (put it in enough water to cover it). Make sure the pot is covered.
This can get pretty salty. I often pour off the water at this point and add fresh again to cover.
Add peeled, quartered potatoes and make sure water covers them and the ham. Cook on a low simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes. Then, add as many canned, drained green beans as you like. Cook another 15 minutes to a half hour until the potatoes are very tender, remembering to keep the pot covered to keep the heat in.
This is also a very tasty way to use up fresh green beans. Just put them in with the potatoes for an hour.
We usually have this with some quick biscuits or rolls and melty butter. The bread is great for soaking up the juices. This dish also tastes better the second day--if you can stop yourself from eating all of it. Enjoy!
This is a delicious meal using shrimp and green beans. You can eat this on a bed of rice or noodles, or you can eat it on its own like I do. The beans are carb enough for me and make the shrimp more a star of the plate! I hope you try this recipe.
Green beans can be prepared in many tasty ways and served as a side dish. Try one of the ones found below tonight.
Green beans are delicious when either pan fried or batter dipped. This is a page about fried green bean recipes.
This page contains green bean salad recipes. Green beans make a tasty salad.
This page contains green bean casserole recipes. Green bean casserole is a delicious dish that many families serve at Thanksgiving. It is a simply dish to make and there are a number of ways to enhance the traditional recipe too.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
Here are some ideas on how to spruce up the flavor of green beans.
