Basic Grilled Green Beans
Earlier this summer Jon turned our cedar fence into a bean trellis by stapling a panel of concrete reinforcing wire mesh to the fence. I planted a mix of yellow, green and purple pole beans along the bottom and they quickly scrambled up the wire scaffolding, covering up the boring fence with their pretty vines and dangling beans.
In the past few weeks, I’ve harvested a pile of greens and have been experimenting with grilling them over a charcoal fire until they are just tender. The beans get a bit crispy on the ends and the charred bits add a nice smoky undertone. Grilled green beans only take about twenty minutes to go from garden to table and they pair up perfectly with barbecued salmon.
You can serve the beans plain, but I like to jazz them up with toppings. Below you’ll find a basic recipe for grilling green beans, and I’ll post recipes for Grilled Beans Topped with Charred Tomato Sauce and Spicy Grilled Beans with Raita shortly. Check them out! And then get grilling, summer is only here for a few more days!
Basic Grilled Beans
You’ll need:
1 pound of green beans (two or three great big fistfuls)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Instructions:
1. Snap off the tips and stems of each bean and pile them into a colander. Wash them, shake off excess water and dump them into a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the beans, sprinkle on salt and pepper to your liking, and then toss the beans until evenly coated with oil and seasonings.
2. Grill the beans over low flame (or on the edge of coals, if using a charcoal grill). Be sure to lay the beans crosswise across the grill’s grate to prevent them from falling through. Or, you can completely prevent losing beans through the grate, by loading them into a vegetable grilling basket. Place the lid over the grill and let the beans cook. Stir the beans every few minutes to make sure they cook evenly and don’t burn. Remove from the grill when they are tender crisp (about 8 to 10 minutes). Serve plain or with Charred Tomato Sauce or Raita.
mmmm…I need to check my bean plants to see if I have enough to harvest for one of these great recipes tonight…or if not tonight then later this week. I know for certain we’ll be enjoying freshly dug red fingerlings, fresh corn from the garden and grass-fed tenderloin off the grill…and all of this after a restorative yoga class…hmmm…I need to stop living in my future and enjoy the here & now…thanks for these. I can’t wait to try them!
September 10th, 2008 at 2:46 pmHi, I got a question about planting beans! I heard that it’s better to plant them while it’s still cold, before the last frost. In order to test it, I planted purple purple hyacinth in March & June. The one planted in June germinated right away, and grew better (March plants actually died out). Your vine looks gorgeous, I am really jealous! What time did you plant them this year? Do you think my experience is due to our cold spring this year? I’m also wondering if you planted them in south facing wall. We have east & west facing wall that I would like to plant them… Thanks!!
September 10th, 2008 at 3:25 pmRobin, sounds delicious! I want to come to a barbecue at your house! C, peas do well when planted before the last frost, but beans grow much better if you plant them when the weather and the soil has warmed up. The seeds tend to rot in cool soil, and if they do germinate the plants will just sit around and wait for the weather to warm before they grow. I planted my pole beans in late June because we had such a cold spring (I usually plant in mid-June), and they didn’t really fill in until late August. They are planted on a fence that faces west (and is on the south side of our house). I think you’d probably have the best luck if you planted yours next year on the west facing wall. Good luck!
September 10th, 2008 at 4:42 pmBeautiful trellis! We use bamboo teepees, but then again we don’t have such a nice fence. Thanks for the directions for how to grill beans - I’ll have to try it!
September 11th, 2008 at 7:34 amThanks for your tips, Willi! I’ll definitely want to try beautiful bean wall fence next year!
September 11th, 2008 at 7:42 amWilli…any favorite seed packets/brands? The Territorial Haricot verts turned out a mix of yellow wax and bush beans; the Seeds of Change Stringless snaps turned out to be a mix of climbing and bush…both with a bit of string to them. Harumph! I’ve never had such problems in the past…fortunately, all are edible. Unfortunately, the bush-turned-climbers are planted such that they block sun to tomatoes!
Ideas?
September 11th, 2008 at 2:36 pmHow strange that your seeds were so mixed up! That has never happened to me before. This year I grew ‘French Duet’ by Renee’s Garden and they were okay. The beans were a bit fatter than I like. For haricots verts I really like ‘Tavera’. Also, in general I think that Kitchen Garden Seeds has a really nicely edited selection of seeds. I’ve grown their ‘Vernandon’ bush bean and really liked it. As for pole’s, I like romano style beans and ‘Kentucky Wonder’ and ‘Blue Lake’ are great old standbys.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pmHi Willi, I’m new here but have to say I really like your blog! In your own experience which type of green bean can provide the highest yields - bush variety or pole variety beans? I’ve always planted the bush variety, but when it comes to butter beans, I’ve always planted the pole variety. Not sure why that is except that was the way my Dad always did it. I know that I get better yields from pole butter beans than I do the bush ones. That’s mostly because the pole butter beans continue to bare until frost (as long as you keep them picked), as the bush ones yield quicker but after you pick them a couple of times they somewhat play out. Just wondering if the same was true for green beans? Thanks!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:27 pmHi, Alan! Welcome to DigginFood! Bush beans are bred to produce a concentrated harvest, which makes them a great choice if you plan on canning or freezing beans for the winter. If you want a continuous harvest of bush beans you need to plant successive crops (about 2 weeks apart). Pole beans produce smaller amounts of beans continuously over a longer period, and typically have larger yields (when all is said and done at the end of the season). I usually plant both pole and bush beans. I pull the bush beans when they are done, and plant something else in their place (usually fall greens).
September 12th, 2008 at 5:33 pmGreat! Thanks Willi!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:58 pm