Why did I plant green beans if I don’t like to eat them?  Well, I dunno… they’re easy to grow and they’re really healthy right?  So now that they are growing, I have to pick them, snap them, cook them and eat them.  Maybe it will be character building for my son to help out.  Most vegetables are better roasted, so I tried it with my green beans.  There are a few tips and tricks to get the most flavor out of any roasted vegetable, and I used them all to make beans appetizing.  I consider this recipe a success.  I ate my beans, and I liked it.

Roasted Green Beans

-Fresh green beans

-Red Onion

-Lemon

-Sea salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450 and if you have a convection option, use it.  Place your pan in the oven to preheat with it.  I like to line the pan with foil for easy clean up.

Trim and wash the beans, then let them dry thoroughly.  It is important to start with a DRY vegetable if you’re trying to get a crisp edge.  Any moisture will steam the vegetables.  Slice the red onion very thin and toss with the beans.  Add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil – more or less depending on the amount of beans you’re working with.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Here’s a little tip:  sugar will make anything brown better, so add just a pinch of sugar to get those tasty crunchy browned spots.

Spread the beans on the hot pan in a single layer.  Again, if your pan is crowded the vegetables will steam instead of getting crisp around the edges.  My pan was a little too crowded and the beans were borderline too soft.  I should have used two pans.  Roast until desired doneness.  I like my vegetables pretty well done which takes 10-15 minutes, but if you’re getting a good browning action, these beans would be good still  a little crunchy.  You can take the pan out and stir halfway through cooking.

Finally, remove the pan from the oven and zest your lemon over the hot beans – just a little zest.  Then squeeze about half the lemon juice over the beans and stir around before serving.  They’re really yummy from the onion and zing of the lemon – they hardly taste like green beans at all.