These savory and aromatic 5 Minute Green Beans with Garlic and Thyme are incredibly delicious and so easy to prepare you’ll be putting them on your menu every week.
In order to give my body the vitamins, minerals and nutrients it needs to be vibrantly health, I try to eat 7-9 cups of vegetables every day. This may sound like a lot but if you have a green smoothie for breakfast (2-3 cups vegetables), salad for lunch (3-4 cups vegetables) and two vegetables for dinner (2-4 cups vegetables) it’s not so hard.
Since my goal at dinner is to have 70% of my plate be vegetables, I like to make 2 vegetables. The variety makes it more enjoyable and satisfying. The key is preparing vegetables that taste great and are easy to make. These 5 Minute Garlic Green Beans fit the bill.
The notion of eating a diet filled primarily with seasonal vegetables is supported by Dan Barber his book The Third Plate. He proposes “Americans should move to the “third plate,” a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat.”
In his book, In Defense of Food , Michael Pollens proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat ” Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
One of my intentions with this blog is for you to discover eating heathy is doable, delicious and can even be fun.
We start this recipe by boiling the green beans in salted water for 3-5 minutes to give them a firm succulent texture. Some stores sell all ready trimmed green beans to make it even easier.
While the green beans are cooking, prepare a garlic puree.
It’s simple: Sprinkle the chopped garlic with salt. The salt’s rough texture will help mash the chopped garlic and draw moisture out of the cloves. Then use your knife and drag it over the garlic, scraping it across garlic to flatten, mash, and scrape the chopped cloves into paste.
Once the greens beans are done, drain, return to the pot and immediately add the garlic puree and a full flavored extra virgin olive oil
The residual heat can cook the garlic enough for people like me who love the taste of garlic but you may want to saute it for 15-30 seconds until the garlic becomes fragrant to mellow out the raw taste. Add fresh or dried thyme, season with pepper and you’re done.
Fresh herbs add vibrant flavors to vegetables. I like keep a few fresh herbs growing in my kitchen all year long and lots of them on the porch this time of year. Think about getting some for yourself, they are very easy to grow.
I hope this recipe inspires you to include lots of vegetables in your diet.
Here are a few more very simple, delicious vegetable dishes you also might enjoy:
Sauteed Spinach with Radicchio
Brussels Sprouts with Olive Oil and Fish Sauce
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Print5 Minute Garlic Green Beans with Thyme
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
Ingredients
- 4 cups green beans, ends trimmed
- ¼ teaspoon Celtic sea salt plus more for salting the water
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic chopped, 1 small clove
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, coarsely chopped or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons full flavored extra virgin olive oil
- fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Add green beans and boil for 3-5 minutes until crisp tender.
- In the meantime, sprinkle the garlic with ¼ teaspoon salt and use your knife to mash the garlic into a paste.
- Once the green beans are cooked, drain them in a colander.
- Put them back into the pot and immediately add the garlic puree and olive oil.
- Toss to combine.
- Heat on medium for 15-30 seconds until the garlic becomes fragrant. The heat will cook the garlic slightly to take away the raw taste.
- Add fresh thyme and pepper.
- Toss and serve.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 5
- Category: Vegetables
- Cuisine: Vegan, Paleo, Gluten Free, Diary Free
Until next time, have a fantastic day and enjoy the recipe. Please leave a comment below. I always love hearing about your health journey and your thoughts and feedback on making your own delicious food at home.
Much love,
Ingrid
