I love me some Trader Joe’s. I don’t always love the quality of their produce but it’s hard to pass up a 2 lb pack of pre-trimmed haricot verts. Tonight, I wanted to eat some buttered green beans but I didn’t want to boil water. Could I be any lazier? Don’t answer that.
Plus, Mark Bittman and Harold McGee advocate microwaving veggies over steaming because nuking veggies delivers better color, texture, and vitamin retention – provided you watch it carefully. So in the name of science (and not laziness), I nuked my green beans to test their hypothesis.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 pound green beans, trimmed (I divided the TJ’s bag in half and vacuum sealed the other half for later consumption)
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons ghee or unsalted grass fed butter
- Salt and Pepper
- lemon juice and/or vinegar (optional)
- handful of toasted slivered almonds (optional)
I put the greens beans and water in a covered glass container and stuck it in the microwave. I nuked it for 2 minutes on high, stirred things around, and then another 2 minutes and stirred things around. After that, I zapped the beans in 1 minute intervals to get the beans to the proper doneness (total of ~8 minutes) and drained the excess liquid.
I threw in 2 tablespoons of butter (use ghee if you don’t tolerate butter) and seasoned with salt and pepper. As a variation, you can add a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar and/or some toasted slivered almonds.
Not bad considering the green beans weren’t pristine and I didn’t have to boil water or wash a pot. Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m exceptionally lazy.
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